ISSUE No. 71 | July 2026
WELCOME
If you’re new to CULTIVARE we welcome you! CULTIVARE is a monthly field guide for life and faith, brought to you by TEND. Each month we explore a specific “field” – a topic or theme through which we seek to cultivate contemplation, engagement, and deeper understanding. Our guiding questions are:
What are you cultivating in your life?
What fruit do you want your life to bear?
Each issue of CULTIVARE is structured into three parts:
Cultivate: Examines a specific “Field” or facet of life and offers questions to unearth and challenge our held perspective; along with concise kernels of truth which we call “Seeds.”
Irrigate: Explores the ways we nurture our understanding, which varies from individual to individual. We offer six means of irrigation: Art, Poetry, Profile, Film, Essay, and Books.
Germinate: Encourages practical ways to engage in becoming more fruitful and free in our lives.
Our name, CULTIVARE, in Spanish means “I will cultivate.” We hope each issue of our field guide will encourage you to do just that – cultivate new thoughts, actions, faith, hope, and fruitful living. We invite you to dig in and DIG DEEP!
FIELD
For we are partners working together for God, and you are God's field.
(I Corinthians 3:9)
Our theme this month is SOLITUDE. Throughout Scripture, we encounter men and women who intentionally withdrew from the demands of daily life to seek God’s presence, wisdom, guidance, and voice. From Moses and David to the prophets—and ultimately Jesus Himself—we see that God’s presence and power are often experienced most deeply in moments of solitude.
The Desert Fathers and Mothers also discovered the transforming value of solitude. They learned that stepping away from the distractions of everyday life helped quiet the mind, focus the heart, and cultivate a deeper awareness of God.
In our own lives, filled with constant activity, relationships, responsibilities, and endless noise, time alone with God becomes more important than ever. Solitude creates space for us to recognize what is truly happening within our hearts and to become more attentive to God’s presence. It invites us to silence the voices that compete for our attention so we can hear the gentle voice of the One who knows us best.
When was the last time you experienced a meaningful time of solitude with God?
For many, the invitation to solitude feels refreshing and liberating. The thought of stepping away from life’s demands to simply be with God is deeply appealing. For others, however, solitude can feel unfamiliar or even unsettling. Being alone may seem uncomfortable or intimidating. Yet wherever you find yourself, God’s invitation remains the same. He welcomes each of us into a deeper relationship with Him. As we intentionally make space for solitude, we open ourselves to greater self-awareness, spiritual renewal, and a more intimate walk with God.
In this issue, we feature a profile of Antony of Egypt, one of the early Desert Fathers, whose life reminds us that solitude often brings hidden thoughts and attitudes into the light where God can heal and transform them. We also include Ted Loder’s beautiful poem, Calm Me Into Quietness, along with William Deresiewicz’s thought-provoking essay, Solitude and Leadership, adapted from his address to the plebe class at West Point. In addition, you’ll find practical ideas and resources to help you intentionally create times of solitude and encounter God in fresh and meaningful ways.
The Gospels repeatedly tell us that during His earthly ministry, Jesus regularly withdrew from the crowds, His disciples, and the demands of ministry to spend time alone with His Father. In those quiet places, He prayed, listened, and was renewed for the work before Him. Jesus extends that same invitation to us today.
As Mark records, Jesus said, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest” (Mark 6:31b, NIV). That invitation still stands. May you accept Christ’s invitation to solitude, finding in His presence the rest, renewal, and deeper communion your soul longs for. (DG)
***
Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. (Exodus 33:7 ESV)
Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him. (Lamentations 3:28 NIV)
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. (Mark 1:35 NIV)
About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened. (Acts 10:9-11a NIV)
***
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SEEDS
A handful of quotes to contemplate and cultivate into your life
All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
(Blaise Pascal)
Solitude is the place of purification. (Martin Buber)
If we possess inward solitude we do not fear being alone, for we know that we are not alone. Neither do we fear being with others, for they do not control us. In the midst of noise and confusion we are settled into a deep inner silence. Whether alone or among people, we always carry with us a portable sanctuary of the heart. (Richard Foster)
We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship. (C.S. Lewis)
Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous—to poetry. But also, it gives birth to the opposite: to the perverse, the illicit, the absurd. (Thomas Mann)
Silent solitude makes true speech possible and personal. If I am not in touch with my own belovedness, then I cannot touch the sacredness of others. If I am estranged from myself, I am likewise a stranger to others. (Brennan Manning)
It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. (Thomas Merton)
Solitude is the place of the great struggle and the great encounter—the struggle against the compulsions of the false self, and the encounter with the loving God who offers himself as the substance of the new self. (Henri Nouwen)
And you should not let yourself be confused in your solitude by the fact that there is something in you that wants to move out of it. (Rainer Maria Rilke)
We too are called to withdraw at certain intervals into deeper silence and aloneness with God, together as a community as well as personally; to be alone with Him—not with our books, thoughts, and memories but completely stripped of everything—to dwell lovingly in His presence, silent, empty, expectant, and motionless. We cannot find God in noise or agitation. (Mother Teresa)
ART
Artist of the Month
Hasui Kawase
(1883-1957)
By Shinook Kang
Hasui Kawase played a significant role in the shin-hanga (“new prints”) movement in Japan. Shin-hanga was a blend of hand-carved wood blocks and western style painting resulting in Kawase’s 620 prints spanning 40 years. Kawase was recognized as a Japanese Living National Treasure a year before his passing.
Already a bit of an introverted person, Hasui was struck with great losses after a devastating fire destroyed his home and 188 sketchbooks in 1923. This propelled him towards his sojourn into landscapes both external and internal. He journeyed throughout Japan for over three months sketching lesser-known places.
The landscapes that dominate his prints seem to reflect the solitude of his travels. Perhaps it is the solitude he embraced in response to his losses that brought such beauty and feelings out of these later sketches. While depicted alone, the figures seem to commune with their environment. Only in understanding one’s place in the immense beauty of created nature does one’s heart open to receiving newness and a sense of belonging. Inspired by nature, we can share newness and belonging with others.
It is this softening and opening that creates a different sense of presence that allows for an invitation: invitation for connections that could only arise after solitude. Hasui beautifully disarms us to enter into the worlds he experienced and recreated, worlds that hold a piece of him. A viewer is touched through these connections to enter into their own solitude, into breathable spaces beyond and within.
To learn more about Hasui Kawase explore the following link: View Now
POETRY
Calm Me into a Quietness
By Ted Loder
Now,
O Lord,
calm me into a quietness
that heals
and listens,
and molds my longings
and passions,
my wounds
and wonderings
Into a more holy and human shape.
PROFILE
Antony of Egypt:
Into the Desert – the School of Solitude
(c. 251–356)
By Greg Ehlert
Athanasius of Alexandria wrote a biography called Life of Antony that powerfully illustrates the cost of obeying Christ. Antony, a young, privileged, Egyptian man, recently orphaned and newly responsible for a younger sister, walks into a church and hears the Gospel read: “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor.” He takes it as a word addressed personally to him. Within weeks, he has given away his sizeable inheritance, entrusted his sister to a community of women, and begun to withdraw from the village, distrusting the rush and ruinous temptations of the world. He first moves to the outskirts of town, then to a nearby tomb, then further still into the Egyptian desert.
This movement outward away from noise and inward toward something harder to discern defined the life of Antony of Egypt (c. 251–356 AD) and, through him, the entire tradition of Christian solitude. Unlike most people of his day, Antony didn’t consider the harsh exposure of the desert as a place to be avoided, but as a school by which to be transformed. For Antony, his departure from “the world” wasn’t an escape, but an encounter with God, himself, and evil.
The dust and desolation of the desert stripped away every distraction, every social performance, every comfortable illusion about himself. In that stripped condition, Antony discovered that the interior life was not a quiet place. The Life of Antony is dense with accounts of spiritual warfare replete with temptations, assaults, and the drama of the demonic. But these were not interruptions to the solitary life; they were its curriculum. You cannot fight what you cannot see. Solitude made the hidden things visible.
This is the paradox at the heart of Antony's witness: solitude was not an end but a means of formation. He went alone to discover and become someone, the person God had created him to be. The desert fathers after him would speak of apatheia, not as the repression of feeling but the purification of it, the untangling of desire from compulsion, attention from anxiety. Antony pursued this with the discipline of an athlete, a metaphor Athanasius uses deliberately. Formation requires resistance. Resistance requires encounter. And encounter, at the deepest level, requires stillness.
Antony quickly learned, however, that solitude is not exclusively private. People came. First a few, then streams of pilgrims including emperors, philosophers, and peasants walking days into the desert to receive a word from the old man. The one who had fled society out of a profound distrust of it became its counselor. The one who had sought silence became its voice. Constantine wrote him letters. Athanasius, who chronicled his life, saw in Antony the living argument against the heresy of Arianism: here was a man in whom Christ had actually done something.
There is a version of solitude that is only withdrawal marked by a turning away from the world’s demands into a private peace. Antony offers us a different model. His solitude was generative. It produced a kind of personhood capable of genuine presence. He could be fully with others because he had learned to be with himself, and in that, with God.
For those of us formed by the noise of modern life, social performance, and anxious striving, Antony’s witness is not necessarily a call to the literal desert. It is a call to the interior one. To take seriously and trust that there is something to be found in the stillness and quiet of intentional aloneness that cannot be found any other way: that the person you become in solitude is the person you bring back to the world.
FILM
Each month we recommend films focused on our theme
Documentary
Monasteries:
A Stressed-Out American’s Search for Solitude
The stress of the typical American day can be relentless. Monasteries: A Stressed-Out American's Search For Solitude offers a place to get away from it all. For centuries monks have found peace and solitude in monasteries. Now everyone has access to these places of refuge. Your visit to a monastery can be a refreshing time of prayer or valuable time alone. In this film, seasoned traveler and author Jim Murphy leads the viewer on a journey to seven Christian monasteries in the United States. Through interviews, ancient and contemporary music, and natural and man-made beauty, you can find your perfect place of solitude. Monasteries reporter Jim Murphy’s spiritual journey has led him from the depths of the oceans to a walk across the United States.
Short Films
The Cloud of Unknowing
(15 minutes)
Rodney Thompson lived as a hermit for thirty years in a small Connemara, Ireland cottage, dedicating his life to silence, solitude and prayer.
“The Cloud of Unknowing” is the title of a Middle English anonymous manual on contemplative prayer. This practice dates back to the third century Desert Fathers (and Mothers) —Christian mystics who separated themselves from distractions in order to find God.
The film is constructed from the interplay of formal and thematic dualities: movement and stasis, speech and silence, portrait and landscape, the sky and the ground. Filled with majestic vistas and robust Connemara weather, the film allows the viewer to step into the mind of a hermit, as the natural world unfolds at an unhurried pace.
“When I was introduced to Rodney I was struck by his graceful and calm benevolence. I wanted to communicate something of this in the film. He has followed an ancient mystical tradition, and his way of being in the world is a blissful respite from the ever-increasing hectic pace of contemporary life. As a documentary film maker, I’m perhaps more motivated by questions of form than content. So, the film that I made is not a conventional biography. Instead, it’s oriented towards the experience of the viewer. It tries to move beyond words and images, much like contemplative prayer itself.” (Mike Hannon, director)
Ted Talk
Reclaim Solitude
Judge Raymond Kethledge
Judge Raymond Kethledge received his undergraduate degree and JD from the University of Michigan and is currently a United States Sixth Circuit Court Judge of the United States Court of Appeals. Kethledge’s favorite place in the world is his remote barn cottage in northern Michigan, where he seeks solitude. Motivated by how solitude has impacted his life, Kethledge spent 7 years researching and writing a book about its benefits. He found that solitude enhances moral courage, clarity, creativity, and emotional balance, among other qualities, and provides an effective defense against entropy in everyday life. This has allowed him to realize the importance of solitude in maintaining inner-directed approval and being tied less to external praise.
ESSAY
Solitude and Leadership
By William Deresiewicz
Our essay selection this month comes from On Being and features author and educator William Deresiewicz. In this thoughtful 2017 article, Deresiewicz reflects on his lecture, Solitude and Leadership, originally delivered to the plebe class at the United States Military Academy at West Point in October 2009.
His insights offer a compelling reminder of the value of solitude—not only for those in formal leadership roles, but for anyone seeking to live and lead with greater purpose, wisdom, and intention. Deresiewicz encourages students to prepare for the challenges they will inevitably face, arguing that solitude is one of the most important disciplines for developing the clarity, self-awareness, and judgment needed to lead well. He writes:
You have to be prepared in advance. You need to know, already, who you are and what you believe: not what the Army believes, not what your peers believe (that may be exactly the problem), but what you believe.
How can you know that unless you’ve taken counsel with yourself in solitude? I started by noting that solitude and leadership would seem to be contradictory things. But it seems to me that solitude is the very essence of leadership. The position of the leader is ultimately an intensely solitary, even intensely lonely one. However many people you may consult, you are the one who has to make the hard decisions. And at such moments, all you really have is yourself.
As you do, may you be encouraged to cultivate the practice of solitude as an essential part of your leadership journey. In moments of quiet reflection, we come to know ourselves more honestly, know God more deeply, and gain greater clarity about the people and circumstances entrusted to our care. Solitude is not an escape from leadership—it is one of the ways we are prepared and shaped for it. May this essay inspire you to make space for the kind of stillness that forms wise, thoughtful, and faithful leaders. (DG)
Read the entire article here:View Now
BOOKS
Each month we recommend a book (or two) focused on our theme
NON-FICTION
There are many encouraging and insightful non-fiction books
regarding Solitude. We offer these two for your enrichment.
Invitation to Solitude and Silence:
Experiencing God’s Transforming Presence
by Ruth Haley Barton
Ruth Haley Barton’s award-winning, practical introduction to the spiritual practice of silence and solitude is an invitation to you to journey into the real presence of God and hear and his voice.
Much of the Christian faith is about words—preaching, teaching, talking with others. But the hectic demands and noise of daily modern life can drown out God’s words and keep us from fully meeting him.
Taking the story of Elijah the prophet as inspiration and example, Invitation to Solitude and Silence explores the power of quietness and stillness in connecting with God. Filled with practical exercises that draw on Ruth’s own experience, it encourages and challenges us to rethink how we see silence and solitude and to use them to invite God deeper into our lives.
Invitation to Solitude and Silence is ideal for anyone looking for spiritual disciplines to help them connect more fully with God and practices to aid their spiritual formation. Ruth’s gentle wisdom will expand your idea of what prayer can be and help you find time to rest and renew your faith so that your relationship with God is strengthened.
Out of Solitude
By Henri Nouwen
With more than 400,000 copies in print, Out of Solitude by Henri J. M. Nouwen offers a timeless reflection on the sacred tension between our longing for quiet communion with God and the unrelenting pull and noise of daily life. Drawing on three pivotal moments in the life of Jesus―his retreat to a lonely place to pray, the feeding of the five thousand, and his promise that, after going away, he would return to them―Nouwen shows how Christ himself turned to solitude to receive the Father’s love and to discern his will.
Nouwen names the truth we often sense but rarely articulate: “Somewhere we know that without a lonely place our lives are in danger. Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure. Somewhere we know that without a lonely place our actions quickly become empty gestures.”
With pastoral insight and deep compassion, Nouwen reveals how time alone with God grounds our identity in divine love rather than self-reproach, deepens our compassion for those who suffer, and renews our hope as we await Christ’s return. He reminds us that authentic service and generous love can only flow from a living, personal relationship with the Lord.
CHILDREN’S
Frederick
By Leo Lionni
Winter is coming, and all the mice are gathering food . . . except for Frederick. But when the days grow short and the snow begins to fall, it’s Frederick’s stories that warm the hearts and spirits of his fellow field mice. Winner of a 1967 Caldecott Honor, Frederick has been cherished by generations of readers.
In Frederick, a mouse who is a poet from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail demonstrates that a seemingly purposeless life is indeed far from that—and that we need not live by bread alone! —Eric Carle
DIG DEEPER
Practical suggestions to help you go deeper into our theme
1. QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
Devote some time and thought to these reflective questions on our theme:
a. In what ways (if any) do you engage in the practice of solitude?
b. What do you find meaningful about times of solitude?
c. What do you find challenging about time spent in solitude?
d. What fears surface in the quiet?
e. What is God’s voice competing with?
f. Is your solitude a time of rest or a battlefield?
g. What are your true desires and surrenders?
2. A GUIDE FOR SOLITUDE AND SILENCE
In this short blog post by Justin Langebartels, he offers a helpful guide for the practice of solitude. View Now
3. THE SOLITUDE PRACTICE
This helpful and lengthy pdf put out by Practicing the Way ministry and Baylor University offers daily and weekly activities, readings, and ideas for learning how to practice solitude. View Now
4. RETREAT AT A HERMITAGE OR MONASTERY
Consider visiting a local monastery or Christian retreat center for a time of solitude, refreshment for your soul, and silencing the noise that may be encircling you. Here are some monasteries that we can personally recommend that have been helpful and meaningful to our Cultivare team:
Christ in the Desert, Abiquiu, NM View Now
Conception Abbey, Conception, MO View Now
Holy Cross Abbey, Berryville, VA View Now
Mount Angel Abbey, Saint Benedict, OR View Now
New Camaldoli Hermitage, Big Sur, CA View Now
Prince of Peace Abbey, Oceanside, CA View Now
St. Andrews Abbey, Valyermo, CA View Now
Weston Priory, Weston, VT View Now
5. PRAYER
Dear God, I pause now to step away from the noise and demands of my day. Help me to be still, to relax my mind, and to release any tension in my body.
Grant me the grace not to fear this time alone, nor to rush to fill it with distractions. Instead, teach me to value this silence as a sanctuary where I can commune with You. Ease any feelings of loneliness, and help me to instead embrace this stillness as an opportunity to draw closer to Your presence, finding refreshment and comfort in You.
In Your holy name, AMEN.
ROOTED
But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.
(Jeremiah 17:7-8 NIV)
POLLINATE
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(a 501c3 ministry) for CULTIVARE are tax-deductible.
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FIELD NOTES
Images used in order of appearance:
1. FIELD: Mehmet Ali Turan, 2020. https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-red-jacket-standing-on-view-deck-5506482/
2. SEEDS: Edward Hopper, Automat, 1927. Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA.
3. ART: Portrait of Hasui Kawase, photographer unknown, 1939.
Hasui Kawase, Morning at Dōtonbori, Osaka (Ōsaka Dōtonbori no asa), 1921. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.
Hasui Kawase, Kujukushima island, Shimabara, 1922. National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, D.C.
Hasui Kawase, Late Fall by Lake Yamanaka (Yamanakako no banshu), 1947. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
4. POETRY: Lachlan Dempsey, 2017. https://unsplash.com/photos/white-paddle-boat-on-body-of-water-wG3hNLfu75A
5. PROFILE: Detail from Francisco de Zurbarán, St. Anthony Abbot, 17th century. Pitti Palace, Florence, Italy.
6. FILM: Peter Dyllong, 2026 https://www.pexels.com/photo/misty-forest-path-with-silhouette-of-lone-walker-35767077/
7. ESSAY: Auguste Rodin, The Thinker, 1910. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
8. BOOKS: J.L. Gerome, The Wailing Wall, 1880. Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
9. DIG DEEPER: Fernando Fader, Al solcito, 1922. National Museum of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
10. ROOTED: Heinrich Hofmann, Christ in Gethsemane, 1886. Riverside Church, New York City.
TEAM CULTIVARE: Duane Grobman (Editor), Greg Ehlert, Bonnie Fearer, Lisa Hertzog, Shinook Kang, Elizabeth Khorey, Michelle Lum, Olivia Mather, Andrew Massey, Rita McIntosh, Jason Pearson (Design: Pearpod.com)
WE'RE LISTENING:
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and suggestions for future issues.
Email us at: info@tendwell.org
