"The man who fears to be alone will never be anything but lonely, no matter how much he may surround himself with people. But the man who learns, in solitude and recollection, to be at peace with his own loneliness, and to prefer its reality to the illusion of merely natural companionship, comes to know the invisible companionship of God. Such a one is alone with God in all places, and he alone truly enjoys the companionship of other men, because he loves them in God in Whom their presence is not tiresome, and because of Whom his own love for them can never know satiety." (Thomas Merton)

The world around us abhors solitude, so it surrounds itself with constant noise and busyness. But it is never enough.  The one who is seeking for the truth and the real meaning of life will find it not externally, but internally, not in noise but in silence, not in activity but in stillness. The further we try to run from ourselves, the less we know about the mystery within us. It is within us that we find the presence of God, the real meaning of our life.