“I feel the same way about solitude as some people feel about the blessing of the church. It’s the light of grace for me. I never close my door behind me without the awareness that I am carrying out an act of mercy toward myself.” ~ Peter Høeg, ‘Smilla’s Sense of Snow’
Life’s responsibilities often distracts from this. Loneliness can make us avoid solitude and self.
Lone tree out near Christmas Valley, Oregon, near Ft. Rock.
“in this short life
that only lasts an hour
how much-how little-is
within our power.”
―
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” Viktor Frankl
“A man must find time for himself. Time is what we spend our lives with. If we are not careful we find others spending it for us. . . . It is necessary now and then for a man to go away by himself and experience loneliness; to sit on a rock in the forest and to ask of himself, ‘Who am I, and where have I been, and where am I going?’ . . . If one is not careful, one allows diversions to take up one’s time—the stuff of life.” Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)
“Ah, Humanity” Herman Melville
self and all the combinations with self……………………………………………………………selfish? self absorbed selfie-self
“It is necessary … for a man to go away by himself … to sit on a rock … and ask, ‘Who am I, where have I been, and where am I going?” Carl Sandburg
“When the light is crooked, the shadow is crooked” Yiddish Proverb
“People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering.” Augustine
“Was it really some other person I was so anxious to discover…or was it only my own solitude that I could not abide?” David Markson, Wittgenstein’s Mistress
