The Blessing of Solitude

Family Reflections | By Patti Defilippis

I don’t like to be alone.  Leonardo’s been on tour the last week, and I have been spending my evenings in our big empty house.  I intend to read, to knit, and to clean.   

But instead I watch TV.   

It’s a temporary situation, but there is a an emptiness in my heart when he is gone.  Which makes me think, morbid or not, of what it would be like if he were really gone, and I were truly on my own.  So many people, so many of you are, I know.   How do you do it?   

I wish I were one of those people who really feels the presence of God all day long.  Perhaps that is the blessing of solitude.  Perhaps I need solitude to discover this presence.  Perhaps this emptiness is good for me.   

Dear God, show me the way to your presence, in the lonely space that the world cannot fill.

 

Painting by John Defilippis, defilippisartstudio.com