Thursday, March 29, 2012

The Power of Alone

I think I'd do ok with solitary confinement. I heard about the artist Bon Iver spending blocks of time on end in a cabin by himself in the woods of Wisconsin. He says it was crucial for the artistic process. I can see that. Lately, my life has lended itself to spending a lot of time on my own. Only now do I realize how far I had journeyed from the 15 year-old version of myself who would seek out solitude like blood returns to the heart. I felt as though I would suffocate without some time to aerate; some time to "spread it all out" before me, rearrange it, meditate upon it and then carefully place it all back on shelves in my heart. Certainly, that time spent "doing nothing" was hardly that, it was crucial to my development and to my sanity (see Joseph Pieper's essay "Leisure: The basis of culture")

This is what led the 15-year-old me to climb the highest tree I could find at night. Only to find a moss-covered indication that someone had the same impulse at one time. There was a wooden plank nailed between two branches about three stories up in this gigantic tree. While there, I'd be still. I'd listen to the silence as if I were gleaning the first taste of sugar after Lent.

Today, with a three-year sojourn through Toronto's urban desert behind me and about 8 nomadic dwellings in 10 years, I've rediscovered the power of alone. It opens spaces in me that have become overgrown. The soil is perfect here, so let's see what I can grow...