INSULA

Almost everyone has an island in mind. It might be a real one from a holiday years ago. It might be a cottage, a bench by a lake, a quiet kitchen early in the morning. A place where the noise stops at the shoreline.

We tend to think of islands as places to escape to. Marcus Aurelius, who ran an empire and rarely had a free hour, saw it differently. He noticed how much people longed for the sea and the mountains, and wrote in his notebook that the quietest retreat is closer than that.

The quietest retreat is the one you carry with you.

He still went back to his work every morning. What he meant was a small piece of ground inside yourself that stays calm while the water moves around it.

It takes time to find. For some it comes with walking, for others with music, or with a few minutes before anyone else is awake.

The sea around it does not go away. It does not have to.