The UK Government tells us repeatedly, to help save lives, stay at home. 

And so we do – slowing down, maintaining distance, shrinking our social circles to single households. It is nothing any of us ever expected to experience.
 
In July 1963, when the Beach Boys were riding high on a wave of songs about California sunshine, cars, girls and surfing, Brian Wilson, with help from fellow band member, Gary Usher, came home late one night and wrote a very different song. It was called, In My Room. According to Usher, Brian was always saying that his room was his whole world. The song was a B-side and also released on the Surfer Girl album. 
 
There's a world where I can go and tell my secrets to
In my room, in my room
In this world I lock out all my worries and my fears
In my room, in my room
Do my dreaming and my scheming
Lie awake and pray
Do my crying and my sighing
Laugh at yesterday
Now it's dark and I'm alone
But I won't be afraid
In my room, in my room… 
 
The time we are living through comes with an invitation to dreaming and scheming from a new – and perhaps unfamiliar – place of inwardness. It is an invitation, not to loneliness, but to solitude. But solitude is hard and we need the help of others who have made the journey before. 
 
In the Jewish and Christian tradition, the most familiar metaphor for solitude is the desert or wilderness. Before Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, he spent 40 years alone (more or less) in the wilderness. The initial wilderness experience for Jesus was compressed into 40 days – 40 days of temptation, trial and transformation. Last Days In The Desert, a 2015 film by Rodrigo Garcia, and featuring Ewan McGregor, portrayed the temptation of Christ as a man confronting his shadow self. If we are to apply this idea of a wilderness journey to ourselves, I suspect there is much to be learned from this interpretation. Having been thrust by the Spirit into a place of solitude, Jesus returned (as Gospel-writer Luke describes it) “in the power of the Spirit.” Later in the story, it was times of solitude, as he sought out a “lonely place to rest awhile” that gave Jesus the strength and centredness to keep reaching out in love and compassion to those around him.
 
One of the most accessible guides to solitude and inwardness during my lifetime has been Henri Nouwen, although, not being part of the tradition in which I grew up, I only discovered him after his death in 1996. I don’t claim yet to fully understand; I have a long way yet to travel. But I love these words of his:
 
“By slowly converting our loneliness into a deep solitude, we create that precious space where we can discover the voice telling us about our inner necessity—that is, our vocation. Unless our questions, problems, and concerns are tested and matured in solitude, it is not realistic to expect answers that are really our own… This is a very difficult task, because in our world we are constantly pulled away from our innermost self and encouraged to look for answers instead of listening to the questions. A lonely person has no inner time or inner rest to wait and listen. He wants answers and wants them here and now. But in solitude we can pay attention to the inner self… Solitude does not pull us away from our fellow human beings but instead makes real fellowship possible.”

Don't fight it; learn to love the solitude of being in your room. 
 

Chris Denne