The Road Within

A silent retreat with my father showed me that solitude and quiet is spiritual medicine. I've built a career in advertising and a full life at home, and somewhere between the two I ran out of hours that weren't already spoken for. So now I go places alone.

What I do out there is unremarkable. I read, I meditate, I play the handpan, I write, and I spend long stretches doing nothing at all. But something quietly remarkable happens in the space between those things. That is the journey inward, and it is the whole point.

There is some guilt in going alone, and I won't pretend otherwise. But I have come to believe the trade is fair. The man who comes home is better for having left.