Thursday, April 9, 2009

talking is often a torment for me*






























Silence is for me a fount of healing which makes my life worth living. Talking is often a torment for me, and I need many days of silence to recover from the futility of words.
-Carl Gustav Jung



*this was Jung describing me also.......perhaps you as well?


art: Solitude - Charles Sprague Pearce, 1889

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24 comments:

francessa said...

Wise words from the man I share my birthday with ;-)! And a beautiful picture.

Lydia said...

@Francessa- This is one of those rare moment-to-moment occasions, when I was at my blog in Oregon when your comment came in from Austria. Fun! My doctor loved the information about the AKH. Yes, the old part was where he studied and he'd adore a picture. I'll email more. :)

Anonymous said...

hello!tnx for following my blog. I am however transfrring my three blogs to one site at http://elishagayhidalgo.blogspot.com/
please drop by some time and follow me there instead.many thanks!

Natasha said...

Wow I love the saying although I am the polar opposite, I don't think I could survive a couple hours without talking! I have 3 sisters who call all the time so chances of me staying quiet are slim :)
I always love reading your "about me" page, its poetic.

Mark said...

Very interesting. Silence is very important and rarely achieved.

Darlene said...

I love that photo and it certainly fits the Jung quotation.

I think my friends and family wish I would just shut up because I talk too much. Perhaps it's because I am alone so much that I take advantage of an available ear when I find one.

Anonymous said...

Nice post.. and you have nice blog... Hey, you wrote something about a Bangladeshi girl in a post of my blog. Do you remember? I gave a reply there and asked you few questions... Reply that when You have free time... And I read your "About Me" today. I appreciate your courage. Keep it up!

The Acolyte Tao said...

Carl Jung. ( =
totally one of my favorite people ever.
He has so many quotes too that are just magnificent as well as books and ideas and philosophies.
^.^

Looking to the Stars said...

Jung was describing me to a tee. I call it needing my space and I do need it for inner healing. My husband is the chatter box and he has the smarts for it, he can talk about anything. I have done more chattering on blogspot then i have in my lifetime :)

robin ann mcintosh said...

this is just like me, reminds me of Letters to a Young Poet. Also, Dorothea Brande talks about this in one of her writing books - talks about the restorative, healing powers of silence.

what is your email address? I am making my blog private, and I would very much like to invite you :)

dianasfaria.com said...

yes, definitely me as well. I do love to talk as long as it is balanced with more time spent in silence. does that make sense?

YogaforCynics said...

I appreciate silence more some times than others...it's been said, in fact, that it's hard to get me to shut up...and yet, last year I was at Kripalu in Massachusetts, where they have silent breakfasts, and I LOVED it...to enjoy breakfast with lovely company and yet not have to speak...what could be better than that?

Lydia said...

@sassy reporter- Done! I'm now following your combined blog and it looks good over there. Congrats on organizing your busy life, at least your blogging life. :)

@Natasha- I'm so happy that you are blogging again, in the midst of your busy life with grad school! Thanks for the comment on "about me."
I have one sister who lives across the country and we love each other dearly, but have spoken on the phone maybe three times in nine years, the last one being election eve 2008! That must seem really strange to you with the gregarious relationship you have with your sisters. Personally, I think yours is a more normal relationship. :)

@Mark- You're right about that. I craft it at home as much as possible. The only absolute silence I've ever known is in the high desert. this post describes my favorite place.

@Darlene- Yes, isn't that painting beautiful? I love it.
You know, I seriously doubt that your family and friends wish you'd be quiet, and I bet they well know that your alone time means that you've stored up much of interest to tell them.

@M Riyadh Sharif- Thanks much for your kind comments. As soon as I read them today I visited your blog and found what you wrote in response to my comment there. You verified what I thought about early marriage for many young girls in Bangladesh.
You seem to care about the future of your country very much.

@Acolyte Tao- Yeah, Jung! Did you see that Francessa shares his birthday? Have you visited her blog yet?

@Looking to the Stars- Ditto on the amount of blog chattering in comparison to a lifetime of social verbal chatter! I separate "social" from "work-related" because I had jobs that included constant talking.....insurance agent for Nationwide Insurance was one and I was an amazingly successful salesperson on the phone. It's weird.

@a little bird- Ah, our shared love for Letters to a Young Poet.....I absolutely will get my email address to you and am so glad you choose to carry me along into the private blog. May it be a healing new place for you to share your wondrous talent.
I have not read Dorothea Brande's book - am putting it on my list.

@Lily- It makes perfect sense to me. The times I realize I've absolutely loved a meeting, conversation, engagement that involved lots of talking I can almost always link to recent silent solitude.

@YogaforCynics- Every time I see an ad in Yoga Journal for Kripalu I ache to go there. It must be so enriching. A silent breakfast sounds sweet; the eye contact must be amazing. I've read that it's most healthy to refrain from talking while eating, and you don't have to worry about those pesky table manners as much. :)

Daryl said...

Lovely ... but not me, I am a chatterbox

Happy Easter

MuseSwings said...

Beautiful postcard and perfect quote to accompany it!

I enjoy silence and solitude. Sometimes words are spent just to buy noise. Cynthia

Erin Davis said...

Lydia,
This is indeed me, and silence is something I don't give myself often enough. I love this photo!

RB said...

Someone once said to me:

When you share music, or writing or silence, you have a friend. When you share all three, it's love.

Margo said...

Definitely describing me as well. It's why sometimes i wish was driven to paint instead of write sometimes. I need huge amounts of silence :)

Hattie said...

I'm talkative and extroverted, and so are most of my friends. One thing that is nice is that you silent introverted types can get a word in edgewise on blogs!

Lydia said...

@Daryl- Dear Chatterbox, thanks for being here and Happy Easter to you too. :)

@MuseSwings- sometimes words are spent just to buy noise.......that's a beautiful quote!
I may be confusing people who are a part of the Postcard Friendship Friday (PFF) community that Marie Reed hosts. I sign in on Fridays, but try to let folks know that my postcards show on Wednesday. I started "Old Postcard Wednesday" a year ago, but am wondering if I should change it to coordinate with PFF......
Today's post shows a painting that may be in postcard form out there somewhere, but I don't have a postcard of this artwork.

@Erin- And out of that silence, or sometimes out of the chaos of your daily life, comes some of the deepest poetry being written today. I'm in awe of your talent.

@RB- That is quite the quote to ponder, as I can't think with whom I've shared all three in my lifetime.......

@Margo- Lovely to see you! Yup, I know what you mean about painting. Maybe you have the talent (I do not) and can dabble in that silent world of art while focusing mainly on your writing. My sister (see my comments to Natasha above) is a beautiful artist. When she clears silent time in her busy life it is to paint....a main reason why our closeness is an understood sort of thing.

@Hattie- Here's the strange clincher: in those tests I always come out as an extrovert. Prior to sobriety that was indeed who I was. This is something I'm going to think more deeply about in terms of abandon and introspection.....

Batteson.Ind said...

I love silence.. I can only create when I have 'my own space'. I could quite happily spend one end of the day to the next without uttering a word... It is a hugely important thing for the human spirit.. (glad you enjoyed the willie nelson vid.. :-)

j said...

"Talking is often a torment for me." -- isn't that the truth. Which is why I prefer writing, where I can attempt to get it right over and over again, in different ways.

Interestingly, I find that some of my best friends are talkers, though even they enjoy a bit of silence now and again.

Lydia said...

@the watercats- I couldn't agree with you more. Enough "said." :)

@Jennifer- I hadn't thought of this in reference to writing in quite that way, but it's true. When I'm with my talker friends the talker in me emerges and I usually enjoy conversing. But I'm wiped out afterward and silence renews me.

secretfragileskies said...

beautiful, beautiful - everything. Thanks.

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