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Today's
quotation:
Blessed are those who do not fear solitude, who are
not afraid of their own company, who are not always desperately
looking for something to do, something to amuse themselves
with, something to judge.
If you are never alone, you cannot know yourself.
Paulo Coelho
Manuscript
Found in Accra
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Today's
Meditation:
I
really enjoy being with other people, especially people
with whom I get along well, but I also love
solitude. I find it to be a wonderful experience to
spend time alone, without external noises and voices,
simply enjoying the peace and quiet or writing or running
or doing one of the so many things that we can do much
better on our own.
I've known many people who fear solitude, who seem to feel
that if they're alone, they've somehow failed because
other people don't want to be around them. For this
reason they avoid solitude, which is a bit of a shame
because they never experience the healing and the
rejuvenation that can come from being on one's own--not to
mention the creativity that can arise from being alone
with our thoughts.
When I'm alone, I can follow thoughts through to a deeper
level than I can when I'm with others, who tend to shift
the focus whether we want it shifted or not. I can
spend time walking or reading without interruptions that
cause me to lose my train of thought, or to think about
things about which I don't particularly want to
think. And these thoughts are all very important to
me.
It's nice to be alone. It's also nice to be with
other people, but for many of us the balance shifts to the
latter in ways that are very stressful, and
"deliberately seeking" the former is a good way
to help ourselves be balanced and to understand ourselves
much, much better.
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