I haven’t yet had the opportunity to ask anyone how they experience solitude and I’m thinking that if I do, I will be setting myself up for failure. You see, here I am on Iona with the intention and desire to be in solitude. So how can I ask the question without breaking the very solitude that I’m looking for? And besides I don’t want to research solitude, I want to live it.

     Yes, I want to live my life surrounded by silence, solitude and simplicity, but not as an end in itself. The end, as I see it now, is gratitude; the means are silence, solitude and simplicity. I’m a long way off from living gratitude, but it’s an idea that keeps coming to me and one that from time to time I experience in my everyday life.

    How to start? By remembering to be grateful for the little things that happen. Just today I’m grateful that my flights were on time and hassle free, that the ATM machine worked at the airport, that the sun was out in Oban, that I have made it with ease to Iona. Of course I blew it with a mild complaint that I had to empty my water bottle before going through security. Why fuss about the little things that don’t go my way?

      For a few years I’ve been playing around with the idea of living a life of gratitude. It started with my mom’s last words nine days before she died at age 101. “Very grateful,” was how she viewed her life. Recently the Word of the Day from Gratefulness.org. was by the Peace Pilgrim:

     If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.

      What would happen if I just thought gratitude? The possibilities are mind boggling, no, more than that, they could be world changing. How can I be negative if I think gratitude? If I walk around thinking gratitude I’ll be looking and acting positively, I’ll be putting out positive energy. I think it would matter in the universe; maybe just a little, but it would matter. What if more and more people lived a life of gratitude? Then, maybe it would matter big. I think of Peace Pilgrim; I know she made a difference.

The last 24 hours has offered me simple travel, simple in that everything went as scheduled and simple because I’ve made this trip to Ion many times, definitely adding to the ease of it all. I love public transportation so here’s how it went—well, public except for the first leg when Jim drove me to the Logan Express bus. I haven’t include all the walking but it’s been a healthy amount.

Car to Logan Express
Bus to Logan Airport
Plane to Dublin
Plane to Glasgow
Bus to Oban
Ferry to Mull
Bus to Fionnphort
Ferry to Iona

    

I want to introduce you to Tom Soma and his blog http://www.lookingforgodinamerica.com/.

     After 15 years as Executive Director of Ronald McDonald House Charities® of Oregon and Southwest Washington, I left my job and sold my home. On April 20, I hit the road to look for God in America. During the next year, I'll be posing two questions: 1. How do you experience God? 2. How does that encounter color your life?
     By journey’s end, I hope to answer a third question:  Can the ways we connect with God help us recognize and appreciate what’s truly important—and perhaps transform how we engage with each other and the Earth?

     Although I try to keep away from specific religious talk on this blog, I don’t shy away from God talk as it relates to the search for silence, solitude and simplicity. As human beings we all long for some connection with the ineffable, we all find ourselves sitting in the mystery of life. And that is what Tom is looking for in America.   

      Tom has me thinking about how people experience solitude. I write about my own yearnings but what about others? What about those of you reading this blog? What about the people I meet? I feel that my understandings have reached a plateau, that my thoughts are redundant, that I’m treading water, that I need to learn from others.

     I’d love your comments, either on this blog or to me personally over email [email protected]. I’ll also be asking people as I travel about either at around home or on my solitary travel. In fact on Sunday I’m off to Scotland and seven nights on Iona. No question I’ll meet people who are longing for silence, solitude and simplicity and who sometimes like to be alone.

    What questions to ask? How about Tom’s, substituting solitude for God?

     “How do you experience solitude? How does it color your life?”  

Getting ready for the big Pennsylvania year sale at my daughter’s is not simple. And yet, neither is it complicated. For the two days prior to the sale we have been cleaning, sorting and pricing, but we have to keep all the treasures in the garage for fear of rain and early birds--human that is. Saturday morning, out it all goes by 7 AM.

     We’re having such fun getting ready and the day itself will be a blast. Then at 1PM it will all be over. What doesn’t sell goes on the side of the road along with a ‘For Free’ sign, ready for the real yard sale junkies. Voila, all the stuff is gone and off we go, back to our truly simple life.  

     Sometimes I take a status report on how silence, solitude and simplicity are playing out in my life. Here it is on this rare day in June.

     Silence: It’s quiet around here: the robins have flown the coop, our resident bunny appears every few days but never makes a sound, and at the moment we have no visitors . Just the two of us and we’re pretty quiet.

     Solitude: typical balance; plenty of solitude in the midst of our usual social activities.

      Simplicity: that’s up for grabs, for sure. We’re gearing up, literally, to take a bunch of stuff to the neighborhood yard sale at our daughter’s in Pennsylvania. It’s not simple to sort and pack the car. Then there is the getting ready for my trip to Scotland. We drive home next Sunday morning and I fly out that evening. Packing for both trips is complex. But once I get on the Isle of Iona, for a week my life will be silent, solitary and simple.

      Bunny must have been in a little squabble. Thus looks like she has three ears.