Every place I have ever lived, I have had a place that I go for solitude. I did not need a seperate space where I grew up, as we lived on 40 acres of rolling hills and forest in southern Indiana, specifically selected by my parents for its solitude. I carry that solitude with me wherever I go, but I also sometimes need a physical place to go to help access this interior state.
Ironically, since then, the physical place I go when I need to access this internal sense of solitude is typically, but not always, a public place. Having other people milling around that I can see but am unlikely to need to talk to somehow opens up something in my brain. Almost always, it is an outdoor place in nature, with the exception of the Cleveland Museum of Art when I was in undergrad at CWRU. My place of solitude among strangers needs to be a place that I can walk around, as it is a place I go to think, and possibly feel. Walking helps me work through whatever I can’t get to in my everyday surroundings. This solitude is a sorting out space.
Right now, my go to solitude is the Würselener Wald, the local public forest. I love seeing the seasons fade into each other. I have not been in a while right now because it is too wet and muddy, and I can feel its absence. I also go there with my family, and apparently that is typically when I take photographs. However, many of the nature details in my minds eye are from my walks alone. I particularly love the mossy roof shelter. Sometimes I will just walk to it and look at it, then touch the trunk in the center.
