Long ago the word alone was treated as two words, all one. To be all one meant to be wholly one, to be in oneness, either essentially or temporarily. That is precisely the goal of solitude, to be all one.*
Clarissa Pinkola Estés

For nowhere can you find a more peaceful and less busy retreat than your own soul – especially if on close inspection it is filled with ease, which I say is nothing more than being well-ordered. Treat yourself often to this retreat and be renewed.**
Marcus Aurelius

Look at me,
Listen to what I’m saying,
Keep moving, keep doing,
Binging is your reward –
The outside world is demanding.

Come into your stillness,
Enter the quietness in which
the minute gives way to the moment, where
being is your treasure –
The inner world is inviting.

It’s not one rather than the other,
The more the outer world becomes
faster, louder, demanding,
The more we need to
grow our souls.

Marcus Aurelius wrote meditations such as
this one for himself –
If you were to write your own,
To lead you to your soul-retreat,
What might you pen?

*Clarissa Pikola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves;
**Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic.