Early on in the pandemic, when we’d just begun the lockdown with work places shutting down, restaurants closed, and schools closing, we were only just getting used to having the kids at home, shopping once a week, avoiding people as much as possible, including even our son who lived on his own, plus being in a constant low level state of anxiety, keeping ongoing lists in my head, living, breathing, reading, and writing everything I could about coronavirus 20/7 with four hours leftover for sleep. Often, I couldn’t get through that minimum of four hours. I tried watching the White House’s coronavirus briefings; I thought they would be useful and informative. I thought they would quell my anxiety of those early days of unknown. My priest called them “dark days of confusion,” and they truly were. We’re still in them sometimes now. Those briefings didn’t help; they left me with higher levels of anxiety.
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Solitude
StandardSolitude appears in many places and are as different for each person as the people themselves. As much as the Lenten season is a group activity in that all Catholics do it at the same time, it is very much a solitary effort for each of us:
– what we give up for Lent, what we add, if and when we fast, abstaining from meat on Fridays, how and how often we do penance and ask for reconciliation, what we share for charity, how often we pray, and where our individual journeys take us.
Lent is forty days of solitude, of just us and G-d, our thoughts and prayers, our priorities and our choices on our crossroads as we meet them.
Solitude is the quiet inside no matter how much the outside noise is raging.
Solitude is the thought of doing better, being better, offering kindness where there is none or more where there is not enough.
Solitude is random, and comes in the shadows, in the light, and in the in-betweens.
Solitude is the thinking space, the quiet within the quiet.
Photo 101: Solitude and Rule of Thirds
StandardI decided to do the rule of thirds slightly different than usual. It happened that the table I was sitting at was divided into three uneven sections and I used those as my thirds for my companions in solitude.
I usually find solitude in traditionally noisy places: the mall, waterfalls, Cracker Barrel (best white noise anywhere), and Starbucks to name but a few. This one happens to be in a Target so while people are coming in and out to get their drinks, they rarely stay.
Another view of that solitude:
And another example of thirds:
Griffins and Ginger Snaps 