Jane Kenyon’s advice to writers:
Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours.
I was intrigued by the emphasis on solitude — it appeals to me, but it certainly goes against the extroverted American culture, which considers “loners” to be pathological.
What do you think of solitude, cultivating an inner life?
September 24, 2015
While I can be as sociable as the next fellow, my first choice is solitude and quiet. I am what Brene calls an ambivert! I love solitude, a book or two at hand and some nice soft music playing in the background to noise and crowds.
I’m an ambivert too, but nowadays I spend more of my time at home where I can concentrate/contemplate/whatever.
you KNOW what i value in life!
although… like rummy. i can be a social butterfly if necessary.
it’s just that it zaps my energy.
and i am always so happy to return to stillness and alone time which i find more natural and satisfying.
and i read in a book once that ‘pathological loners’ aren’t loners at all.
loners simply happily enjoy solitude and would never think of harming anyone.
pathological people who desperately crave acceptance and recognition from others and feel thwarted in getting it … and then become angry because of it
even to the point of revenge or evil acts …
are usually thought of as ‘loners’ … when in fact the opposite is true.
interesting take on it.
Good point about so-called “loners”. Thank you!
Solitude? Yes, we all need to recharge our batteries. Even the most sociable. And I am sociable, dropping everything for anyone (after all, Jean, what’s the night for if not to catch up on what you were interrupted in during the day?). It’s got to the point where when I say to the Angel (when he is around): “Just popping out for ten minutes” he will reply “Yes, see you in two hours.”
People think me so approachable I can’t do my own shopping without someone asking my advice in aisle 23. Of course, it’s sweet and I am happy about it. However, when you need to concentrate (and I don’t write as such for a living, but print is everything) sometimes I feel like a diver coming up for air when someone interrupts. Totally disorientated for a nano second.
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Just a nanosecond? When I’m deeply immersed it takes me a lot longer than that. I never will forget the time a gal came by to ask questions for renewing my security clearance. She asked me about my hobbies. Huh? I knew I had some, that I didn’t spend all of my time thinking about work. Fortunately she had asked other people about me so could jog my memory. As soon as she mentioned something I said, “Oh, yeah!” and talked about it enthusiastically. It was funny.
I’m in favour.
Me too. 🙂
I can wing it most of the time in social interactions but I am more a loner – happy at home with a good book, some artful things to tinker with, looking at this www gadget.
someone asked me a few weeks ago why I loved facebook – well I find so many things to link off – via the different feds I get – that I see facebook more as a port to another world.
the Unconvention I’m going to tomorrow came via one of my feds on facebook…looking forward to listening to hopefully a wide range of speakers on enterprise etc
Good for you!
did you know that the biggest demographic using facebook is the 55 – 65 year olds!
That’s interesting! I would not have guessed it, although I know the internet is a blessing for seniors a bit older than that.