A few days ago while idly flipping through a cookbook I hadn't opened in years, I discovered a quote by American poet, author and activist, Maya Angelou:
"Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us. We need hours of aimless wandering or spates of time sitting on park benches, observing the mysterious world of ants and the canopy of treetops."
There is a quiet calm to her words. The words are of course partially addressing the world of the writer and poet--or really, any creative spirit. The creative needs the space and time to expand and grow, to take form and reach some plateau of definition, even if it continues to reverberate with ongoing possibilities. Artists and thinkers of every type, even experimental cooks need room to tinker and taste, watch and wonder, without the world and it's demands closing in. But this quote expands that artistic need to all us, "each person". How else can we open to life's larger, immense possibilities that hold unrealized joys and unknown solutions?
As a child, Angelou remained mute for 5 years after a traumatic event. Like most children, she blamed herself. She became fearful of her own voice, refusing to speak. During this long period of traumatic silence, she read and absorbed literature, poetry and new ways of understanding life through quiet observation. A teacher eventually led her to recover her voice by convincing her that she could love poetry more by actually speaking it.
This story gives added depth to the quote above. We don't remain withdrawn; what we gather in, we eventually give expression to in one form or another. Paradoxically, those cares that will not withdraw from us potentially announce a gift, an expansion that we will never discover until we withdraw from them. If not today, choose a day, or even a few hours to be carefree. Go where your trouble and your striving cannot find you. Stop seeking solutions, simply wander aimlessly, sit...watching...listening... receiving. (Susan Nettleton)