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Today's
quotation:
Great
minds are like eagles, and build their nest in some lofty solitude.
. . .
People can be themselves only so long as we are alone, and if we do
not love solitude, we will not love freedom, for it is only
when we are alone that we are really free.
Artur Schopenhauer
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Today's
Meditation:
There's so
much that I can do when I'm alone, and so little that I
can do when I'm with others. Many of my favorite
things to do-- writing, reading, running, etc.-- require a
certain degree of solitude, and who knows? It may be
that requirement that actually makes them things that I
like to do. Artur says that we can be ourselves
"only so long as we are alone," and I tend to
agree with him. My true uniqueness is allowed to
shine only when I'm not with other people, facing a host
of expectations from them simply because I'm in their
company.
Solitude
doesn't mean loneliness, and it doesn't mean that we
always have to be alone. I love being with other
people, but I also love being alone, and finding a good
balance between the two is extremely important to
me. I love when I'm alone and I don't have to answer
questions from others. I don't have to tell anyone
why I'm doing what I'm doing, and I don't have to choose
words carefully when I'm speaking. I can read or
watch or listen to whatever I wish at the moment without
taking someone else's wishes into account, and that frees
me up immensely.
I
believe this is one of the qualities of a strong
relationship, too-- the ability to feel as if we're alone
even when we're with the other person. With some
people we can simply be who we are without fearing
judgment or censure, and that allows us to feel free in a
world that so often wants us to be someone else so that we
can be "acceptable" to the rest of the
world. If the person we're with doesn't help us to
feel free, then it probably is a good idea to re-evaluate
that particular relationship so that we can know if it's
helping us to thrive in freedom or if it's keeping us
down.
Some
people do feel lonely whenever they find themselves in
solitary situations. Some people always want to have
others nearby, and that's a shame because they don't allow
themselves to feel the benefits of solitude, the benefits
of not being answerable to others all the time. We
need to find those solitary moments for ourselves so that
we can experience the freedom that we all need to
experience in order to get in touch with ourselves-- to get
in touch with the persons we really are rather than the
persons we let the world see.
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