Solitude.
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Solitude.
"The sage takes such things and makes the most of it. Embracing his solitude." I could have made those two sentences into one by adding the little word, by. Lao Tzu on more than one occasion speaks of times of solitude, here he goes a stage further and says he embraces it as if it was a dear and precious friend.
The creative person will be familiar with the thought of embracing solitude. Most creative things are accomplished after and during times of working alone. Some may find it helpful to be part of a group, working together and sharing the experience, but even those moments are just an interlude to the many hours closed away in the studio or at the workbench. The writer, sitting at the keyboard hour after hour putting words from the mind and moving them into flowing and captivating prose.
It often seems that we live with a fear of solitude and silence. Some say it is the loneliness of such, but that may be too simple. We seem to be in an age of sound and noise. Everywhere we are surrounded by music and a beat or the sound of voices coming from a radio or television, as if to be without would be something terrible. Background music almost deadens the possibility of conversation and sharing.
Is there a fear of solitude, because possibly in the silence we may have to look inward and do not like what we see? Or possibly we have filtered silence out of life, and do not like to feel alone, and silence may do just that. Maybe it is a fear of loneliness. As the Tao Te Ching says in this chapter, " They do not like to feel powerless and alone."
It is in the moments of solitude, and they need not be much more than moments, that we can harness the Yin and the Yang of our being. When we find time to fully know our inner self both the female and the male then, and only then, do we find and embrace harmony and peace.
It is in solitude that we learn that we are never alone. It is in solitude that we learn to be at one with the universe. From such solitude comes knowledge and understanding.
The creative person will be familiar with the thought of embracing solitude. Most creative things are accomplished after and during times of working alone. Some may find it helpful to be part of a group, working together and sharing the experience, but even those moments are just an interlude to the many hours closed away in the studio or at the workbench. The writer, sitting at the keyboard hour after hour putting words from the mind and moving them into flowing and captivating prose.
It often seems that we live with a fear of solitude and silence. Some say it is the loneliness of such, but that may be too simple. We seem to be in an age of sound and noise. Everywhere we are surrounded by music and a beat or the sound of voices coming from a radio or television, as if to be without would be something terrible. Background music almost deadens the possibility of conversation and sharing.
Is there a fear of solitude, because possibly in the silence we may have to look inward and do not like what we see? Or possibly we have filtered silence out of life, and do not like to feel alone, and silence may do just that. Maybe it is a fear of loneliness. As the Tao Te Ching says in this chapter, " They do not like to feel powerless and alone."
It is in the moments of solitude, and they need not be much more than moments, that we can harness the Yin and the Yang of our being. When we find time to fully know our inner self both the female and the male then, and only then, do we find and embrace harmony and peace.
It is in solitude that we learn that we are never alone. It is in solitude that we learn to be at one with the universe. From such solitude comes knowledge and understanding.
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