Sayings

“In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself." - Arthur Schopenhaur 

I like solitude, though as a person I am supposed to crave human companionship but though I enjoy having people around me those moments of being alone with soft music playing on the radio brings peace and quiet.  It is like listening to the blackbird at the moment, chattering his heart out and greeting the day.

That is why I like the above quotation, we are blessed with active minds, some might say overactive but it is like carrying an enormous book in one's head.  The older one grows* there is more accumulated, so that brief pictures pass through the mind, and luckily they are happy memories mostly. 

Today Sutton Bank, overlooking the Gormire Pool.  Where once a monk turned into the devil and sent a young man and his horse over the cliff edge to the pool below. 

Gormire Lake from Sutton Bank - copyright Michael Hutchinson Geo.

On this particular journey of the mind, I asked the question did William Wordsworth write about solitude, for he and his sister Dorothy walked this area from Thirsk, through Helmsley, Kirbymoorside and other places, when they were on their way to his sister's friend Mary and the marriage between Mary and William. Interesting information can be found here on Dorothy's diary keeping.

Then there is the following poem by Margaret Atwood.  Clear in its simplicity, yet laughing gently at the fact of getting old and the young not knowing what a 'polaroid' photo was.  Those of us who had one bitterly regret the fading of these photos but does it really matter?

*As for age, next week I turn a decade, 80 years old to be precise.  In fairly good health with my family around me, who reckon I should live to a 100 - God forbid!

Margaret Atwood reading  her poem 'Dearly'