Here's what I'm learning this week:I need more sleep than I usually allow myself. Much more.Solitude really matters. I really need sufficient time away from people, projects, words - even from books. The longer I am alone, the more I am able to let go of all the ways I'm bracing myself, clinging on, holding back. The less obsessive I am. The more keenly alive. And I'm kinder - to myself and others - when I've had time to encounter myself more fully.There is little that is more opening than a wide sky - whether blue with high clouds or speckled with stars.And there is little that restores me to myself more than trees, silence, and the sea.