Source: Newpathwaytohealing.com
Quiet and solitude… I’ve been contemplating the necessity of these things for what seems to be weeks now, having first been inspired by a post from my dear friend and heart sister, Ashtoreth Eldritch, then by a couple from the Mystic Mamma (We Need Time Alone and Woman Is the Axis).
For a couple of years now, I’ve shied away from sociability, never having been one to make friends quickly or easily. I’m the sort that prefers “quality over quantity”, preferring to have a couple of really good friends vs many “acquaintances”.
For the past twenty plus years, though, I’ve moved around, never staying in one location for more than a few years. Such is the life of a military spouse… In addition to this, anyone I may have made friends with during this time could possibly be on a different “rotation”, meaning… If I made a friend shortly after moving to a new location, there was a very real possibility that it would be necessary for she and her family to move shortly there after. After making friends (some of whom became like family) and parting ways in this manner… after awhile one (at least, me) gets to where one no longer wishes to put forth the effort, knowing what the eventual outcome is likely to be. The ache of loneliness becomes preferable to the ache of “losing” yet another close and dear friend.
With my husband’s impending retirement, though, we now find ourselves in a location, which we plan to stay for many, many years to come. If we move, it will (likely) be no more than a town or two away from where we are now. So, any friends I make now – unless they move – I will (hopefully) be able to keep for sometime in the future. It is with this one thought in mind that I’ve begun to approach my previously next-to-non-existent social life.
For me, the freedom to finally lay down roots is a heady one, indeed. Much like a starving person placed before a feast, I am eating it up with endless abandon, virtually gorging myself. So enthusiastic am I to establish friendships and fill the void within. As an empath and heart-centered individual, who more times than not, leads with her heart, though, this is a recipe for certain burn-out. “Been there, done that”, as they say.
In the past, I have not heeded the warning, filling my days with unbalanced busyness… never asking for help, fearing it was a sign of “weakness”. It was in those instances, I drove myself so far into the ground that I ended up in bed, nauseous – even vomiting – from being so run down energetically. I like to believe that I learned my lesson, though. Yesterday, I pulled myself to a screeching halt before I reached that point. While it was true that I did go past my comfort level – with my emotions very close to the surface and raw, I did not allow myself to be laid low as I had in the past. I was in desperate need of quiet and solitude… It is within both that I have been propelled to the heart of the true lesson.
As beings in physical form, we spend much of our time searching to experience that which is our nature in the realm of Spirit; searching to feel the connectedness we ARE there. Unfortunately, such actions are counter-intuitive. Our human mind erroneously leads us to believe if only we were able to connect with enough “others” on the outside; if only we fill our time with enough activity, only then will the ache of loneliness we feel subside. The truth of the matter is, though, only through quiet and solitude, by going within and connecting to our Core, our Spirit Self are we able to feel that which we seek to feel, our inherent connection to all. Only through this connection are we able to fill the gaping void within.
Everything we could ever want, need, or seek can be found within.
And it is through quiet and solitude that it is accomplished. A fact that I, so obviously, needed reminding of as well…
A Mental Mystic 
Posted on October 1, 2012