Each day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and pure foolishness.
May SartonRead
I can tell you that solitude Is not all exaltation, inner space Where the soul breathes and work can be done. Solitude exposes the nerve, Raises up ghosts. The past, never at rest, flows through it.
Interpretation
Solitude allows for introspection and creativity but also brings forth emotional challenges from the past.
In this quote, May Sarton reflects on the dual nature of solitude. While solitude can be a space for creativity and self-discovery, it also unearths unresolved emotions and memories, challenging individuals to confront their inner struggles. The contrast between the exaltation of inner space and the haunting presence of the past highlights the complexity of being alone, as it can serve both as a sanctuary and a source of discomfort.
In practice
During a discussion on mental health, one might quote Sarton's perspective on the importance of solitude.
Each day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and pure foolishness.
Pain can make a whole winter bright, like fever, force us to live deep and hard.
She became for me an island of light, fun, wisdom where I could run with my discoveries and torments and hopes at any time of day and find welcome.
Wrinkles here and there seem unimportant compared to the Gestalt of the whole person I have become in this past year.
Here life goes on, even and monotonous on the surface, full of lightning, of summits and of despair, in its depths. We have now arrived at a stage in life so rich in new perceptions that cannot be transmitted to those at another stage - one feels at the same time full of so much gentleness and so much despair - the enigma of this life grows, grows, drowns one and crushes one, then all of a sudden in a supreme moment of light one becomes aware of the sacred.
I think of the trees and how simply they let go, let fall the riches of a season, how without grief (it seems) they can let go and go deep into their roots for renewal and sleep.... Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain, psychic pain. Sit it out. Let it all pass. Let it go.
When advertisers ignore diversity, it is because they don't think the lives of others matter. There is not enough of a financial imperative for those lives to matter.
If I should die, think only this of me: that there's some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England.
I punish myself for my whole life, my whole life I punish.
I will call no being good who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow creatures; and if such a creature can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go .
I cannot find language of sufficient energy to convey my sense of the sacredness of private integrity.
Shadow work is the path of the heart warrior.
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