DEAR SOLITUDE

There has always been a place for you in my heart. I can be very accepting of you.

I sought you out for years. I was so happy living in Switzerland taking long walks, alone, through the fields along the trails that lead up into the mountains. In the forests above Lake Lucern I would find the magic of being with you. I don’t think I have ever been bored in the forest or in the mountains--with always something new to look at, a view above the lake or up into the clouds with so much quiet to surround a soul.

I have always loved to travel alone, and in Switzerland I took the steamer from the little dock in Trieb, near where I lived, into Lucerne. I would find a seat on a bench at the boat’s stern and sip endless cups of tea feeling the world pass by. I liked not knowing the Swizzerdeusch that people babbled around me--the not knowing allowed me to stay within my sweet pool of solitude. In this place, in Switzerland, I could spend entire days in this state of mind. I often took the train into Zurich to buy art supplies. The store was in the center of the old town which was one of my favorite places in the world to wander, with it’s narrow streets all leading eventually down to the Limmatquai and the lake. Sometimes I would stand outside a cafe and watch the play of humanity filling themselves up with food and drink and talk--probably of business deals and bank quotations and industries and relationships and dreams of love.

Lost in your warm grip, Solitude, I have always managed to find hope and peace for I know it is within you that they reside.