How does that old song go? "I've been to paradise, but I've never been
to me...." "We must relearn to be alone," exhorts Anne Morrow
Lindbergh in her inspirational book, Gift from the Sea. "Instead of
planting our solitude with dream blossoms, we choke the space with
continuous music, chatter, and companionship to which we do not even
listen. It is simply there to fill the vacuum."

"We can't stand the silence," said Agnes de Mille, "because silence
includes thinking. And if we thought, we would have to face
ourselves."

"Before we can surrender ourselves we must become ourselves," Thomas
Merton pointed out. "For no one can give up what he does not possess."

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