Solitude and Company and Get Enough Sleep

I've just finished reading a book -  The Stranger in the Woods - The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel. It's the true story of Christopher Knight who from the age of 20 lived alone and undetected in the woods in Maine in the northern United States for 27 years.

When he was finally captured in 2013 - he lived by stealing food and provisions from nearby holiday homes - he was interviewed many times by Michael Finkel who wrote the book.

I found it very disturbing  -  although he was highly intelligent, to have survived without human or animal contact for so long - how could that not damage you?  He said he was never lonely - 

'once you taste solitude you don't grasp the idea of being alone. If you like solitude you are never alone. 

But when Finkel asked him what was the greatest insight revealed to him in the wild he replied,

Get enough sleep. 

Although I've had a lovely day - spoiled with more birthday gifts and lunch with 3 gorgeous women - I have been beyond myself, hollowed out with tiredness,  as I had very little sleep last night.

I keep resolving to go to bed earlier...the same resolve I had and wrote about in the last blog before Robin died, when I was so exhausted...but I don't often manage it. 

Maybe I need to unhook myself from that memory.....and write a new one.

I do like solitude ....need it....but also I can choose when I have it...and I can let myself feel lonely too...

But I can also choose company, contact, communication whenever I need it too.

How blessed I am.