Bird Droppings February 10, 2011
More snow and silence

“I have never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.” Henry David Thoreau, Solitude, Walden, 1854

There has been an attraction for me to Thoreau for a number of years perhaps when I actually started reading his words rather than simply skimming along it hit me. I recall so little from high school yet I know his name came up a time or two. I was out watching the snow come down earlier today a silent world when snow is falling and on the ground. The air is colder today than in several days but hovering around freezing so by mid day snow will be gone. Perhaps it is Thoreau’s affinity for the woods and out of doors that has caught my attention as I tend to spend a lot of time in reflection and solitude.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” Henry David Thoreau, 1854

It has been a few years since I have wandered off into the mountains to walk on a regular basis. I have been content to go out into my yard early in the day when all is at rest listening and watching there are lessons to learn. Each breath and sight is a lesson if we allow it to be. Every new smell or sound is profound. I find each day something new as I walk out it might be a star I have never seen or an owl hooting off in the distance, perhaps a dove calling early in the morning. Several months back I watched a dove cooing from a pole as I walked out on Panama City beach one morning. The waves hitting against the beach and a dove were my morning sounds.

“We live in a very tense society. We are pulled apart… and we all need to learn how to pull ourselves together…. I think that at least part of the answer lies in solitude.” Helen Hayes

I can be confusing at times seeking solitude in a crowded world often brings questions from the masses, most people congregate in flocks like sheep wanting the companionship and close company. I enjoy that briefly but I would much rather return to my own thoughts and seek quiet in another way.

“It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts.” K.T. Lang

Far too often we become so over powered by our own existence and lose track of where we are. Daily I meet people who have nothing but their “friends” no real word at all. All existence is that façade of their material world.

“Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.” Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

“By all means use sometimes to be alone. Salute thyself; see what thy soul doth wear.” George Herbert

I remember my first trip to the Trappist Monastery in Conyers Georgia. The Trappist monks farm and work in various crafts. They have a store and sell produce and baked goods and of course their handicrafts. I recall one of the brothers who was a stained glass artisan and was famous for several churches in the Atlanta area all within a world of silence as Trappist take a vow of silence. But there is always a calm among them.

“Only in quiet waters do thing mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.” Hans Margolius

I have talked with several people in recent days whose minds are not clear and perceptions are distorted. It is so difficult to try and calm a ripple in a pool of water. It literally has to continue to the side of the pool. You can distract it and send another ripple occasionally colliding with and interfering and canceling out the first. But also they can join forces and be twice the ripple and distortion.

“Solitude shows us what should be; society shows us what we are.” Robert Cecil

An interesting statement but as I ponder sooner or later even Thoreau had to walk to town.

“The great omission in American life is solitude; not loneliness, for this is an alienation that thrives most in the midst of crowds, but that zone of time and space, free from the outside pressures, which is the incubator of the spirit.” Marya Mannes

If only we could make use of solitude but for too many fear it. We seek companions we seek that herding instinct.

“In solitude, where we are least alone.” George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

Then I watch the news and see how we are all intertwined. A moments peace is broken by five minutes of news and a world being torn apart. Perhaps not enough solitude but I wonder if it would help. Send all the people wanting war off by themselves and send all the people who are seeking more wealth off by them selves and then wealth has no meaning. What good is more wealth if you have nothing else to buy.

“Inside myself is a place where I live all alone, and that’s where I renew my springs that never dry up.” Pearl Buck

Another week getting to the end soon spring will be here again. I still have several flats of plants to get in the ground. As I sit and ponder for the moment please keep all in harms way on your mind and in your hearts.
namaste
bird