Solitude, freedom and community

Some of our family members are on fire, sleeping already for one week in tents on a square in Stockholm, sustaining the occupation and engaging in its development. But what last week taught us clearly is that this isn’t the only way to take part in this movement. Rather than going out, on the streets and squares, occupying places for change, some of us felt the need for something else to happen, something else to engage in.
We were confronted by a call from the world and even more confronted by our responses. When the world enters our community so obviously and strongly, how are we going to act? How am I going to act? What is my answer?
This is a challenge, as being in a group affects this decision, but in the end we need to do what feels right for us as an individual. That is why solitude is a necessary aspect in the process of connecting with one’s individual, unique call and response to such a worldwide, global awakening. To follow the group simply because of its power, isn’t what is needed today. One must find the place in oneself that is truly authentic and act true to that authentic being. This is hard, as in our societal structures and ways we live together today, there is often not so much space for this solitude. We are afraid of solitude. We are afraid of being alone. And this strongly affects our reactions and actions. But what is wanting to emerge, the becomingness of the free human being, can only be truly manifested when we find that freedom in ourselves through solitude and let our creations originate out of that freedom. Only then we will be able to meet each other in the truth of what it means to be human. 

Go to Melanie Lauwaerts personal blog to read the rest of the article.