When from our better selves we have too long
Been parted by the hurrying world, and droop,
Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired,
How gracious, how benign, is Solitude.
How potent a mere image of her sway;
Most potent when impressed upon the mind
With an appropriate human centre – hermit,
Deep in the bosom of the wilderness; […]
Kneeling at prayers; or watchman on top
Of lighthouse, beaten by Atlantic waves; […]
When, for the night deserted, it assumes
A character of quiet more profound
Than pathless wastes.
— William Wordsworth, “The Prelude”
Credits: Photo: Nini Poppins. Quote: Google Books via whyallcaps.us
‘How gracious, how benign, is Solitude.’ It took me awhile to appreciate this gift.
And, I’m still working on it…
Well can you hurry up. I’m not going to visit you in the nursing home to hear “I’m still working on it ha! 🙂
Spewed my coffee out. FUNNY.
Ha! Well, I mean it. Sorry about your coffee. 🙂
yes, to sit in solitude is not to sit in loneliness. it is to sit in peace.
And, oh, just to sit. I shared this quote with Val yesterday and the last sentence is still with me:
It has come to my attention that many of you are trying to stop your thoughts, control your thoughts. You cannot really do this. Trying to stop your thoughts, as Ramana Maharshi says, is like a thief becoming a policeman to catch the thief. In other words, the thief that becomes the policeman will not catch the thief, because he’s a thief himself. And so it is with our minds. When we use the mind to stop the thoughts, the mind will not stop the thoughts at all, because the mind wants to go on living. Stopping the thoughts is annihilating the mind, and the mind does not wish to be annihilated. The mind wants to live on, to fill you full of nonsense, superstitions. Therefore we do not try to stop thoughts. What do we really do? We do absolutely nothing. By doing absolutely nothing, the mind will begin to slow down.
~Robert Adams
yes –
Masterful words that create a palette for the mind.
Wordsworth, must have spent very constructive in Solitude as his wise words still resonate through our thoughts pointing us toward the importance of voluntary prelude in seeking the strength to be still enough to hear the whispers laid upon our hearts.
So true Christie.
constructive “time”