Solitude: gracious and benign

"When from our better selves we have long
Been parted by the hurrying world, and droop.
Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired.
How gracious, how benign, is Solitude."   

The Prelude by William Wordsworth, excerpt from Book IV, "Summer Vacation," Lines 354-370.

I embrace solitude. It frees my mind up from all the distractions of everyday life. I turn inwards then become renewed. This sense of renewal I can turn outwards again and again ... so everyday life will continue afresh.  

Solitude allows my body to catch up with my mind. It allows my brain to have a rest.

Solitude prevents me from burnout, which occasionally happens when I'm subjected to prolonged, intense, and unresolved stress. 

Solitude enhances my creativity as it frees my mind up from menial distractions and allows it to focus more on what's more important. Exactly why artists - painters, musicians, writers, sculptures - spend a lot of time alone. 

Almighty God doesn't get people out of our life at random. He has plans. 

Listening pleasure:  W.A.Mozart: Clarinet concerto in A major, K.622 with Nadja Drakslar.

 

 

 

(c) June 14, 2021. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.

Sniffed out from my past journals (1)

Something worthwhile I've done, and still doing, whilst in social distancing due to COVID-19. I've managed to clean-up and re-organise my 21 journals, including to-dos, rumblings, quotes, moment-outburst, raw notes, all sorts... nota bene. This will be an on-going activity, but hereon, better organised. In this post, I have sniffed them out from these past journals as a process of re-organising - my own thoughts, and quotes from my readings, from watching TV or from listening to a favourite radio program.

There's nothing satisfying hearing someone say something exactly what we want to say, or reading the right words that reinforces what we believe in. Or letting out pent-up sentiments. Liberating. Healing. 


* The true profession of a man is to find his way to himself..." - Hermann Hesse

* Time is like a river. You cannot touch the same water twice because the flow that has passed will never pass again. Enjoy every moment of your life.

* Gene Kelly did it best! Walking and singing in the rain is fun especially with rain a bit warm. Or running away from the waves on the beach one lovely day. Sensations! That's what makes it fun. Simply enjoy. Don't think.

* Voltaire: "Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats."  

When a loved one dies, we don't want to let go, but we have to let go. We move on, for our life is for the living, BUT we don't forget, for they are loved ones who left us.

The beautiful  thing about memories is that they are ours whether they are good or bad. They belong to us, no matter where we are now. 

*Friendship. True pleasure consists not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice.

* Every one and then, we deserve some fun. How much fun choco is! Instead of how to lose those pounds in two weeks.  

Mark Twain:

"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."

"Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience. This is the ideal life."

Colin Powell: "A dream doesn't become reality through magic, it takes sweat, determination and hard work."

Maya Angelou: "My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive, and to do so with (some) passion, (some) compassion, (some) humor, and (some) style.

The sea. The relentless sea! Not just the beach but the ocean - simultaneously calming and energising, inspiring and rejuvenating. (Whilst musing over the sea, allow me to indulge my senses with one of my favourite concerts with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: A Sea Symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams, based from the poem of the same name, by famous American poet - Walt Whitman. Here's a link from YouTube - A Sea Symphony.  Unfortunately our performance has no video recording. (Thanks to uploader Colin). 

This writing pen deserves a rest to withdraw from seemingly tireless thoughts.

(c) April 2020. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.

Tracks for Thoughts and Insights

Quotable Quote:

"When you get near people who are pursuing their heart's desire,

you can see the intensity in their face. 

Life is too short to live without that kind of focus."  

~ Barbara Sher, Author,

'I Could Do Anything
If I Only Knew What It was' ~

*  Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be. It is not what happens to us in life that determines our happiness, so much as, the way we react to what happens. Happiness is a decision, not an event. 

Being creative

Ah, creativity! 

Let's look around our home. 

Notice some items just taking up space?
We can think of new uses for them.

Unlike driving, we can make the rules in life ... to avoid following other people's complicated plans unless we thoroughly understand and agree or prefer their logic.
Let's devise your own plan, whenever possible. 

* The spice of life is in doing new things, in forging something from our substance. 

"It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity;

they must have action and they will make it if they cannot find it." 

~Charlotte Bronte, Author~

"The price we pay for the complexity of life is too high. When you think of all the effort you have to put in - telephonic, technological and relational - and to alter even the slightest bit of behavior in this strange world we call social life, you are left pining for the straightforwardness of primitive peoples and their physical work."  ~ Jean Baudrillard,  French Sociologist, Philosopher and Cultural Theorist. ~  

Tips & Ideas in keeping life simple:

1. Learning to enjoy what's in front of us.

2. Creating time for what we care about.

3. Increasing stress tolerance.

Note: 'Tracks for thoughts & insights' were originally published in my website "Web Sparklers" at Netscape, December 2000. I picked up some insights to include for this post. / Tel. 

(c) 2000. Tel.  Leaves from my musings. All rights reserved.

Day's Quotes

Reflections

19 Nov 2019.

"I can see the sun, but even if I cannot see the sun, I know that it exists. And to know that the sun is there - that is living." ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Relationships Quotes

"Relationships are never airtight. They have empty spaces and when things are mostly good you don't notice those spaces.  But then something happens, and someone comes along and fills some of those spaces. They make you realise they were there in the first place. How wonderful if feels they're not empty anymore." ~ Anon

Self-Esteem Quotes

Give. But don't allow yourself to be used.  
Love. But don't allow yourself to be abuse.
Trust. But don't be naive.  
Listen. But don't lose your own voice.

"Find your passion.
Without passion, you don't have energy.
Without energy, you have nothing." ~ Warren Buffet

Positive Perspective

Quotes I treasure through time.

"Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tide and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. Then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire." ~ Teilhard de Chardin. 

Tracking reflections

Mesmerising quote. Discussions. Arguments.
Discussions are always better then arguments, because an argument is to find out who is right, and a discussion is to find what is right. 

Balance. Life.
Life is about balance. Be kind, but don't let people abuse you. Trust, but don't be deceived. Be content, but never stop improving yourself. - Necole Stephens. 

Positive Outlook.
"No matter how badly people treat you, never drop down to their level. Choose to keep your peac and walk away."

Hope. Recovery. Love. Light. Laughter.
Hope in Recovery through Love, Light and Laughter.
"I'm not a perfect person. I make a lot of mistakes. But I reallyy appreciate those people who stay with me afer knowing how I really am."

Success. Success is doing ordinary things extraordinary well." - Jim Rohm.

Self-righteous Comments.
"Too full of  yourself"??
You've just made a ridiculuos claim tgat a performance by Janet Baker and Murray Perahia, two great artists particularly noted for performing Schubert's music  - a very amorphous and unspecific criticism - and then you accuse my friend of being full of himself for having the temerity to disagree with you? That's a knee-slapper.
Now, why don't you demonstrate your superior Schubert chops and enlighten us all as to just what is wrong with this performance...

Theme from Mahogany (Song)

Random Thoughts / Listening Pleasures

Reflection comes from one of my all-time favourite poets, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
A Psalm of Life - What the heart of the young man said to the psalmist.

I got an email that initially upset me. No longer. Taking this moment to look back at the last binge ... the past year. Rest assured I am moving forward.

Listening: The haunting song "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)" written by Michael Masser and Gerald Goffin. It was recorded by American singer Thelma Houston in 1973, then most notably popularized by Diana Ross as the theme to the 1975 movie Mahogany produced by Motown/Paramount in 1975.

A Psalm of Life

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

   Life is but an empty dream!

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

   And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

   And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

   Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

   Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each to-morrow

   Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

   And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

   Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,

   In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

   Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!

   Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act,— act in the living Present!

   Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

   We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

   Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

   Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

   Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

   With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

   Learn to labor and to wait."


Poem Credit:
Poetry Foundation. Accessed January 23, 2018.

Video Credit:
Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To). Youtube, uploaded by Shooofly. Accessed JAnuary 23, 2018.



(c) 2018. Inspired Pen. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.

A Life Quote

Sometimes our lives have to be completely shaken up, changed, and rearranged to relocate us to the place we are meant to be.

Quotes on Butterflies

 

Butterflies are beautiful. They have meaning and symbolism often used by poets and writers. They are a metaphor representing change, hope, spiritual rebirth, and life itself. Their short yet magnificent life closely mirrors the process of transformation and serves to remind us that life is short.

 

Video:  Butterfly  English Version (A song by Danyel Gerard originally sung in French).  Youtube, uploaded by Jakethepen. Accessed April 7, 2022.  

 

Everyone is like a butterfly, they start out ugly and awkward and they morph into beautiful graceful butterflies that everyone loves.  Drew Barrymore. 

 

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.  Muhammad Ali

 

Happiness is a butterfly, which when often pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.  Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

Know thyself. A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever studies himself arrest his own development. A caterpillar who seeks to know himself would never become a butterfly.  Andre Gide

 

His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred.  Ernest Hemingway. 

 

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.  Rabindranath Tagore. 

 

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.  Richard Bach 

What's a butterfly garden without a butterflies?  Roy Rogers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resource:

 

Butterfly Quotations. www.brainyquote.com. Accessed April 7 2017.

 

 

(c) April 2017. Updated April 7, 2022. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.  

 

Thoughts on life and living

 

 

Quotes and sayings I've kept through the years. Many of them come from my own thoughts, readings, conversations with friends, oh, anywhere and everywhere really, as the quotes warm and uplift, or strike a heartfelt chord. /  Tel 

 

"Life is no brief candle to me. 

It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, 

and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible 

before handing it on to future generations." 

~ George Bernard Shaw ~

 

Life and living.  

Life isn't always what we like. But if I speak and act pure thoughts, happiness might follow me like a shadow. 

If I want to change my live, I may just need to change my mind. 

 

Life is an open book, with no particular limit.Things happen; they come and go. It's how we deal with it. It's how we respond to it. 

We mellow down with years. I've been greatly chastened learning a lot from my experiences, perhaps from hardened scars of pain. I've even started to treat others with exaggerated respect.

(c) September 2011. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved. 

Quotes for Life

Quotes for Life

 

 

Quotes and sayings I've kept through the years. Many of them come from my own thoughts, reading, conversations with friends, oh, anywhere and everywhere really, as the quotes warm and uplift me, or strike a heartfelt chord. /  Tel 

 

Accomplishment.  There is no end to the great things we can accomplish if we don't worry about who gets the credit. 

Acting.  If you speak and act pure thoughts, happiness follows you like a shadow. 

Ambition. My treasured ambition is going on. On the other hand it seems as if fate is interfering with my laid out plans.  

Apartheid.  South Africa is tying to heal the wounds of apartheid by giving victims a chance of catharsis and their oppressors an opportunity to confess.

Attitude: Positive attitudes provide positive results.

Belonging. I'm not sure where I belong. I can write heaps on this. 

Ideas. The ideas that take hold in our minds today will shape the world we live in tomorrow. Some ideas liberate, others enslave. Some fill us with hope and optimism, others strike us as abhorrent. We may cherish or loathe these ideas, but the one thing we can't afford to do is ignore them. 

Identity. Just being myself, and to identify with what I want to be. 

Thoughts and Actions. Thoughts determine what we want. Actions determine what we get.  

Perspective on track. Thinking about Jane Campion's movie "Holy Smoke", it has a mesmerizing opening that plunges into the story with an intimacy reminiscent of the first scene of "The Portrait of a Lady". It also has some of the intimacy of "The Piano". It is saved by some funny scenes , together with an ending that not only puts everything on track but in perspective.   

Capacity of Man.  "Man has a limited capacity for change. When this capacity is overwhelmed, the capacity is in future shock."  Alvin Toffler

Commitment: Se are committing our behaviours and we shouldn't put anything if we aren't going to do it.  

Confidence.  Believe in yourself, and never underestimate the poer of the human spirit. 

Corporate World & Job.  Okay, you work very hard. You get to be an associate, then full associate, then manager... then what next. Will this ever come to a point where you are intrinsically satisfied? When will this end?  I was happier before but I took things for granted. I guess I got dazzled by all the automatic door, the big  corporate image, etc... it's not and was never my cup except for the money.     

Demoralized. I think you guys just wanted me to get away. I volunteered what I could do. No one seemed to listen and would give me a chance. I seem to have lost my voice. My brain seems dead, my tongue seems limp. Slowly, I moved away, demoralized.   

Discipline.  "Real discipline comes form within - a person has to be able to decide for him/herself what behaviour is appropriate (not for kids though, they need guidance)" - Judith Wheeldon.

Excellence.  Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with your excellence.  

Feelings.  When water reaches its boiling point, there's turbulence. I'm about reaching this. I've been despondent over their indifference and unsupportive attitude. Sometimes I feel that joy skips me. "Sometimes I feel like my life is like a jail and all my sins are closing in on me." (The Buccaneers, Edith Wharton.)  "I'm not dead after all. Dead don't weep nor feel pain." (Movie Madame X.)   

Hurrying obfuscates faith. Also, a vague answer to questions confuses and makes the meaning of things unclear... something that politicians use to deliberately make things more confusing in order to conceal truths.

 

(c) September 2009. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.