Jan 18, 2005 18:46
Passage taken from one of the most beautiful books I've ever read: Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams
"I know the solitude my mother speaks of. It is what sustains me and protects me from my mind. It renders me fully present. I am desert. I am mountains. I am Great Salt Lake. There are other languages being spoken by wind, water, wings. There are other liveto consider: avocets, stilts, and stones. Peace is the perspective found in patterns. When I see ring-billed gulls picking on the flesh ofa decaying carp, I am less afraid of death. We are no more and no less thanthe life that surrounds us. My fears surface in my isolation. My serenity surfaces in my solitude."
PEACE IS THE PERSPECTIVE FOUND IN PATTERNS.
My FEARS surfce in my ISOLATION. My SERENTITY surfaces in my SOLITUDE.
Two years ago, I woudln't be able to tell the difference between isolation and solitude; I am alone either way so therefore I am lonely. Now, it's a whole different perspective. For me, isolation is when you're surrounded by people and yet you are alone and you FEEL it. Solitude is being outside with the land that sustains you. I am never alone in the backcountry. I've never felt the freedom like the freedom the earth provides for those who seek it.
I don't know about you but I felt a WHOLE lot better about the world and my place in it after reading this book. This is definitly going on the 'give to friends for presents' list.