This is a confession. And an exploration.

It’s been a long while since I wrote a blog post. First, it was my birthday, and then I went away on retreat, and somehow, I found my feet on a winding path in a parallel life in which there was a blessed absence of deadlines and to-do lists — the kind of silent spaciousness I hadn’t known I’d missed until the horizons opened and melted into an infinite sky.

I treasure my friendships, including the ones I’ve made online. I love sharing my heart in this strangely intimate, utterly public space. I’m enriched, enlivened, provoked, delighted and enlightened by your stories, by the experiences and ideas we share here together.

My friendships, both online and off, are food and water for my spirit. Together, we create synergies that can and do change our world, make it richer, brighter, more nourishing and beautiful.

And, without solitude, I can’t take in any of it. Being an introvert by nature, I need a rhythm of connection and seclusion, as much as I need each in-breath and out-breath.

Especially when there’s a lot going on in my life, as there is right now. I need quiet in which to feel what I’m feeling, to dream new shapes of my work and my life into being, to explore the intersection between my inner genius and the needs of my world so I’ll know how to serve, what I’m being called to partner with now.

As in any dance, timing is everything. Stepping forward when the music calls. Gliding into retreat in the adagio.

How about you? How do you nurture your own inner rhythm of connection, of solitude? How do you step into this dance of the With-ness of We?