I'm reading Clowing in Rome by Henri Nouwen, and I am struck by a section on solitude and community. I'll quote excerpts:

Solitude is the place where we can connect with profound bonds... [It] is not private time in contrast to time together, nor is it a time to restore our tired minds... Whenever we pray alone, study, read, write or simply spend quiet time away from the places where we interact with each other directly, we are potentially opened for a deeper intimacy with each other. It is a fallacy to think that we grow dcloser to each other only when we talk, play or work together. Much growth certainly occurs in such human interactions, but those interactions derive their fruit from solitude... In solitude we discover each other in a way that physical presence mackes difficult if not impossible. (p. 12-13)

I am reminded of what Richard Foster mentions in Celebration of Discipline: that in order to be with others, we need to have times of solitude.