I can remember quite vividly a time when facing a weekend with no plans threw me into a panic. Living alone in New York when I was a twentysomething, I would wake up in great fear, buy the Sunday paper and spend as much time as possible looking at it in a public place. It has been a magnificent blessing of aging that I have become good company for myself. I take pleasure in my wellbeing and ways I can further it by walking, meditating, reading, writing. My interiority has flourished as I've aged.
Thank you for this post. It resonated in so many ways.For me the struggle has been to some degree pushing myself out rather than in. I was alone so much as as child some part of myself struggles to get out of the comfort zone of the self to try to relate more comfortably to the world outside. Aging has been a letting go and I enjoy both spaces so much more now.
When I still had my three-flat, I would get my Zen by tuck-pointing the outer wall of the first floor, which offered the need for limitless attention.
Just mixing mortar and filling in the spaces between the brickwork, I could spend hours with no thoughts at all; just a blank slate and a state of inner contentment, and I came to understand why Winston Churchill’s avocation was to create furlongs of stone masonry walls.
I can remember quite vividly a time when facing a weekend with no plans threw me into a panic. Living alone in New York when I was a twentysomething, I would wake up in great fear, buy the Sunday paper and spend as much time as possible looking at it in a public place. It has been a magnificent blessing of aging that I have become good company for myself. I take pleasure in my wellbeing and ways I can further it by walking, meditating, reading, writing. My interiority has flourished as I've aged.
Thank you for this post. It resonated in so many ways.For me the struggle has been to some degree pushing myself out rather than in. I was alone so much as as child some part of myself struggles to get out of the comfort zone of the self to try to relate more comfortably to the world outside. Aging has been a letting go and I enjoy both spaces so much more now.
My second thought is to have been reminded of a line from Rita Rudner:
When I was a little girl I only had two friends.
And they were both imaginary.
And they only played with each other.
My second thought is to have been reminded of a line from Rita Rudner:
When I was a little girl I only had two friends.
And they were both imaginary.
And they only played with each other.
A couple thoughts:
When I still had my three-flat, I would get my Zen by tuck-pointing the outer wall of the first floor, which offered the need for limitless attention.
Just mixing mortar and filling in the spaces between the brickwork, I could spend hours with no thoughts at all; just a blank slate and a state of inner contentment, and I came to understand why Winston Churchill’s avocation was to create furlongs of stone masonry walls.