Perhaps you are looking for solitude to have time for your thoughts, to think about the meaning of life, or it might just happen. Even this lonely bridge was not left in peace, someone had to scrawl some messages on the wall.
When you move house, to another counry. you are alone basically. For me it was not a big problem, I had a lot to organise, had a job and contact with the family of my boss. You are in a different country, which does not mean that you immediately find friends of your own age, are invited to parties and shopping trips, no – you have some lonely moments.. I did feel lonely now and again, but soon found some contacts.
It was different when I move from Zürich to the smaller market town of Solothurn. I knew no-one, just the people in my office and they had their own families and friends, and were certainly not waiting for me. You have no-one to laugh with, no-one to accompany you into town and no-one to share those moments of discovery when you decide to go somewhere on a train. You have to do it all by yourself. You long to talk to someone, laugh, discuss, but there is only I, me and myself. I had moved to a new place and was living in a village in a room in a house. I did not even have facilities to cook. During day I could eat lunch in the canteen where I was working, but it is a lonely life searching for somewhere to eat in the evening. There is a lot to overcome to sit at a table alone in a restaurant and order a meal. Afterwards you leave, but there is no evening entertainment. You go home to your lonely room and the next day begins again. This was pure solitude.
Of course now and again someone might invite you somewhere, but afterwards it is back to lonely square one. One day I met Mr. Swiss. I met him on the first day of my new job, but all beginnings take their time. After just over a year I was married and had two step children and a growing bump which would become No. 1 son. My days of solitude were finished and now I had to search for the quiet moments between the diapers, baby bottles, and taking children to school, as well as fitting in some cleaning and shoppng. Me time had now grown scarce, but the solitude had disappeared. As I write this I realise that there is a difference between solitude and being alone. Solitude was what I experienced when I was living alone. I now had a few “alone” moments, but I no longer craved a return to the solitude. My kids are now grown, it is just me and Mr.Swiss and Tabby our feline. My oldest son still lives at home, but he has his own life.
Mr. Swiss respects the fact that I now and again like to be alone in my “office” to write a blog or deal with my hobby of photography. I respect his wish to visit our hobby room in the cellar and have a drum practce or go into town where he has his own rehearsal room. It is his hobby, and unfortunately the neighbours that really enjoy having someone living in the house playing drums are few and far between. We do not seek solitude, just a few minutes to do our own thing.
What you see on the picture above is solitude pure. It is a small ravine in the village of Ruttenen about five mintues drive from our village. A stream runs through it and there are a couple resturants, but only one person living there, our local hermit. Some even choose to be married in the ajoining chapel. The person that wants to be tbe local hermit can have their solitude in this place. I have lived in this area for 47 years and have seen many hermits come and go. They do not stay very long. They were all seeking whatever hermits seek but unfortunately never really found it. At the moment it is empty, the last hermit, a lady, decided it was not the life of solitude she was seeking.
Even hermits have problems today. You want to be alone, live your life doing whatever hermits do and above all enjoy the peaceful surroundings for your meditive moments. They even renovated the house as some hermits found it too damp for their rheumatism. And now we have no hermit. The herit left because she found she was not alone, too many tourists waiting at the end of the path to her house with a camera, waiting to see a real live hermit. Too many dogs barking and running out of control. Arguments occurred, loud voices and the hermit got quite angry. Hermits do not get angry of course, they are peace loving people. Eventually the hermit left, returned to her convent or whereever hermits live when they want to get away from the maddening crowds. You see today even if you seek solitude you no longer find it. Anyone looking for a job? There is one available in Ruttenen in a lovely little house with stream and chapel attached. You just have to be a dog lover.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 