Solitude – Self-Sufficiency

After the Party Comes Cleanup – There is a time to be in company and there is a time to be alone. We are most usually alone when we are performing the hum-drum aspects that support daily living. The Buddhists believe this is the moment of mindfulness – when washing dishes can be an encounter with the Sacred.

Do You Hate Your Thoughts? – A recent poll discovered that most people would rather experience electric shocks than spend time alone with their thoughts, doing nothing but thinking. Just as mapping your future is a Warrior’s job, so is mapping your brain. Make yourself a person it’s a pleasure to spend time with. You are not lonely because you enjoy your own company.

Your Training Journal Is Your Mirror – It anchors you with its reflection. It is not necessary to write long pieces – lists or single words are adequate. Visual thinkers may want to sketch out or paste in pictures. Your Training Journal answers the following questions: Where Have I Been? Where Am I Going? Who Am I? Meditate 20 minutes a day on these issues.

Ask Yourself What You Take For Granted – This is the part of the picture that’s hardest to see. Because we take it for granted! Here is where your study of models can be helpful because you will be surprised by what other people take for granted. For example, some people assume being a warrior is constant suffering and hardship, but to me, it is the peace of totally owning oneself and being responsible for oneself. It is serfdom that is suffering and hardship.

Gratitude Practice – Gratitude must be part of your everyday practice. Give thanks for this wonderful body, with its aches and cuts and bruises, eagerly shaping itself according to your efforts. Give thanks for the freedom of your mind. Give daily thanks for the honor of being a Warrior.

Models – “Loneliness is the poverty of self – Solitude is the richness of self.” – May Sarton

“The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude” – Voltaire

“Solitude is necessary for creativity” – Picasso

“The best thinking is done in solitude” – Thomas Edison

#Haiku: Selfish Armor

Imagination untrammeled –
My alone time’s
For your protection