On Being Alone

I have always been a solitary person -- so much so that it surprised me that I married.  Being alone, for me, is very much connected to nature -- I enjoy merging with it and disappearing into it. I feel at once present and unpresent.

I tell people to live as close to the earth as possible, because this is where we're from. This is what supports you.

It's also through nature that I feel connected to ancestry and to spirit, and they are present in the sounds and silence of nature. We don't have any real understanding anymore of how we're connected to all who have come before us. We feel cut off -- but how could we be? They are us, and we are them.

I do think you can learn to love being alone. I think people who have a fear of being alone should consider a meditation practice, to be rather than think. Just try to develop love for yourself and compassion even for all your backward, stupid, mean-spirited, bad ways. Say to yourself, There you are, and I love you anyway.