KFRM Blog

Solitude
Monday 6th of February 2012 07:59 AM
uncategorized

By Kim L. Fritzemeier

KFRM Central Kansas Reporter

Farm Wife along the Stafford/Reno County Line

"The day is ending,

Through clouds like ashes
The red sun flashes
On village windows
That glimmer red."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Afternoon in February

Solitude: For some, it may mean loneliness. For others, it may be a welcomed time apart. It's all in how you look at it, isn't it?

The Kansas plains provide a backdrop for solitude. One feels small and insignificant as day says hello to night under the vastness of a crayon-box-colored western sky.

But that same sky changes if you look from a different perspective. The plastic-covered windows of a stately old stone barn mute the fiery colors. This watered-down version is beautiful in a different way.

And isn't that true of solitude, too? Sometimes we want that riot of "noisiness" in our lives. We long for the color that other people and experiences can bring.

Yet there is a mystery to solitude and time alone. It's a time for rejuvenation ... a time for reflection ... a time of peace. It softens the edges of all the noise in the world, kind of like that barn window.