I like to be surrounded by people and the sounds of life when I work, when I read and write. I even like being interrupted. I've been this way since my days as a student. It all seems to fit in with the rhythm of my concentration. When I am left alone, I begin to brood. Or else I just turn on the TV.
It's true that some types of thinking require silence and solitude. I can get that when I really need it (one way is by being an early riser--I love being the only person awake in a house full of people). And, of course, some portion of the day has to be set aside for the kind of prayer that can only be done alone, that prayer "in secret."
Everyone needs that time of silence with God. The "holy hour," of course, has a biblical foundation. "Watch and pray" (Mt. 26:41) because God wants our company (what an amazing thing!), and because otherwise we cannot hope to live truly in a world of confusion and forgetfulness and sadness and pain. A holy hour. Or a half hour. Or twenty minutes? Fifteen?
Wait, I hear the mothers out there rising up to address this point. Or, at least, I imagine that some of them may be thinking:
"We have no time for that sort of thing! You may be around the kids a lot, but you still don't know what it's like to be The Mother! They don't come running to you with every. single. thing. We can't ignore them the way you can. We can't just "think" like you can while they're trashing the house. No, no! We can never be alone. We just have to pray on the fly, and God will have to understand."Dear mothers, I shall not lecture you. I know that even when Daddy is around during the day, the home and the children revolve around Mommy. She is the center of the home. It's an absorbing and draining thing.
And I know that God loves you very much.
I have an idea. Go into the bathroom. Close the door. Say Veni Sancte Spiritus, Veni per Mariam. Then take five minutes. You deserve those five minutes to remember how much you are loved.
It's just an idea....