Nomad News -Vol.3-No.71

SOLITUDE: Not to be confused with loneliness or reclusion but a time to be alone because you want to be. When you can completely rest your mind and enjoy the beauty of being alive and having fun. I have enjoyed a fun life. Being serious when necessity demanded it, and having fun the rest of the time. You can even have fun while being serious. If you're not enjoying and having fun in your present job, look for another job. Don't spend your life in misery. As a solitarian, I have enjoyed the peace of solitude in the forests of northern Quebec, alone and listening to the chatter from thousands of little night creatures, over-powered at times by the cry of a Loon and then waiting for the answer from his or her mate. Looking up I saw millions of tiny sparkling lights, alive with shooting stars, where your imagination knows no bounds. It's as peaceful and restful as it can be. In the daylight hours the forests are full of different sounds but just as wondorous. I have enjoyed the love of solitude in the woods of New Jersey where I spent my younger years. The sounds and sights were different but the solitude was as intense. I have found solitude alone in the skies at four thousand feet where my mind had to be occupied sixty seconds of every minute as I frolicked, mostly upside down or somewhere inbetween. Only when I returned to terra firma did it occur that all earthly concerns had been left in the dark during that period. This same solitude was experienced when alone at the helm of a sailboat where, once again, attention to the boat's attitude was a sixty-second minute task all the time. Finally, where I found solitude was alone on a lake, with a bottle of Labatt's 50 by my side, watching a Canadian sunset. As you can see, solitude can be found just about anywhere. But, the purest form can be found only in the woods, where God and His creatures meet alone. Andy Dolan