I was born in 1939. At my advanced age, my desire to read, to learn new things, to explore the philosophy of favorite authors is so strong that I scarcely have time for anything else.
Can it be that others of my age feel the same? Do you reach a time in life when you realize you never paid enough attention when you were young because you were preoccupied with being in love, finding love, losing love or feeling sorry for yourself because of lack of love?
I just received a book titled Writers In Paris about literary lives in the City of Light. I looked at the cover with photographs of six or seven writers. I recognized a few – Ernest Hemingway, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. I thought about all their stories and writings and wondered what were the thoughts and ideas that they did not write about? What are the unfinished stories, hidden thoughts, sacred memories, silent feelings that they could not or would not write about? Were any of them like me – afraid for most of their lives of writing about their innermost struggles?
“Shift the sands of daydreams until she produced the solid stuff, golden realities.” Truman Capote
“When we are willing to look directly and honestly at where we actually find ourselves in life, the very limitations that we identify become the doorways to greater potential.” Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
“Why is it that a certain combination of sounds impresses you so much, stirs your emotions, sometimes brings out the best spiritual forces concealed in your soul? I can’t explain it.” Leo Tolstoy on music