“She was happy to be alive and breathing, when her whole being seemed to be one with the sunlight, the color, the odors, the luxuriant warmth of some perfect Southern day. She liked then to wander alone into strange and unfamiliar places. She discovered many a sunny, sleepy corner, fashioned to dream in. And she found it good to dream and to be alone and unmolested.”
Tag Archives: Solitude
Alone in the Woods
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Going into the woods by yourself is the best way to pretend you’re in another time. It’s a thing you can only do alone…If I had a lot of money, I would buy acres of woods. I would put a wall around them and live there like it was another time. Maybe I would find one other person to live with me there. Someone who was willing to promise they’d never speak a word about anything in the present. I doubt I could find anyone like that.
–Tell the Wolves I’m Home
Words: Solivagant
Vocabulary word of the day:
Solivagant: noun so·liv·a·gant \ sōˈlivəgənt \
Rambling alone : marked by solitary wandering.
Choose Power Over Fear
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It was a deal I’d made with myself months before and the only thing that allowed me to hike alone. I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me. Insisting on this story was a form of mind control, but for the most part, it worked. Every time I heard a sound of unknown origin or felt something horrible cohering in my imagination, I pushed it away. I simply did not let myself become afraid. Fear begets fear. Power begets power. I willed myself to beget power. And it wasn’t long before I actually wasn’t afraid. I was working too hard to be afraid.
–Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
- Pacific Crest Trail: Website and Twitter
Voice of the Sea
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“The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.”
“The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.”
Wishing, Wanting and Solitude
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Cinderella At the Grave
“I’ve been good and I’ve been kind, Mother,
Doing only what I learned from you.
Why, then, am I left behind, Mother,
Is there something more that I should do?”“Are you certain what you wish is what you want?”
–Into The Woods, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine
Her Own Rope
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Eve’s Mouth
“Now we’ve got to Rapunzel, she’s chilling in the tower
Waiting for the handsome prince
She’s sapped of all her power
Finally, one day, the handsome prince in town
Called up to Rapunzel, “Yo girl, let it down!”
But our dear Rapunzel was nowhere to be seen,
Yes our dear Rapunzel had learned something keen
“All that time alone kinda taught me how to cope,
So I shaved my head and I made me a rope!””
–Built Like That by Alix Olson