If you are truly called to a solitary lifestyle, eventually celibacy must follow. Solitude invites the presence of God, a presence which so consumes the soul, there is no lover energy available for an intense human commitment to intimacy. The deeper one goes into spiritual solitude, the lighter one travels. But it is not for us to divest ourselves -- at our own willed choosing -- of the things that are necessary for life within society. It is for God to strip us, often painfully, of them at a time when God knows -- if we do not -- that we must go more lightly into this Heart of Love.
The peace in the sky, the peace in mid-air, the peace on the earth, the peace in the waters, the peace in the plants, the peace in the forest trees, the peace in the angels, the peace in the Beloved, the peace in all things the peace in peace ... May that peace come to me!
~ from EVERY EYE BEHOLDS YOU, edited by Thomas J Craughwell