In about thirty minutes I’ll be out the door on my way to New York for Q Sessions | Practices with Eugene Peterson. I’m sitting here in the pre-dawn silence, drinking coffee and reading. I just finished Todd Henry’s recent post on the Value of Solitude. You can read it here.
Some highlights:
Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it. – Thomas Merton
A series of tests in recent years has shown, Mr. Carr points out, that after spending time in quiet rural settings, subjects “exhibit greater attentiveness, stronger memory and generally improved cognition. Their brains become both calmer and sharper.” More than that, empathy, as well as deep thought, depends (as neuroscientists like Antonio Damasio have found) on neural processes that are “inherently slow.” The very ones our high-speed lives have little time for. Source: NY Times
Good ideas, at least for me, require time and space to germinate. My take-away is: how will I create space for reflection?
Jeff Gissing 