Solitude

The silence in the skies above us has had me thinking about

the value of solitude.

Even when alone, 

I am never disconnected.

I am constantly aware of 

the pressing and urgent business of other people's lives.

As planes sweep restlessly overhead

carrying their many hundreds of unnaturally seated human beings,

as emergency vehicles announce their presence

with variegated alarms,

as people shout and gesticulate 

on their mobiles on trains and in the street,

I am diverted from the simple matter of being me.

My thoughts are tempered, even if only slightly,

by the need to react to others

yet they are not even communicating with me.

Leo Babauta talks of the lost art of solitude 

and has much advice to offer.

Nobody who knows me would think that a blog called Zen Habits 

would have much success in detaining me,

I am a multi-tasking, easily distracted flibbertygibbet,

but

I do increasingly feel bombarded by information,

harried and rushed through each brief day

and anxious about 'getting it all done'.

Perhaps it is time to take stock.

Time for some blue sky thinking.