Sister Laurel O’Neal, whose blog is Notes from Stillsong Hermitage, is a hermit of the Camaldolese Benedictine tradition. She was interviewed by Sister Julie Vieira, IHM, of A Nun’s Life. The two installments are: first and second.
Sister Laurel makes a realistic point appropriate to both religious and secular solitaries. When asked what she would recommend to someone interested in the eremitical life, she replies (among other things):
If you have substantial healing of your own to do, get to it before you make any commitments to eremitical life. The hermitage allows for such work to be done but actual commitments to the life need to have that out of the way as much as possible.