To Be Silent...... To Be Alone

“For now she need not think of anybody.  She could be herself, by herself.  And that was what now she often felt the need of—to think; well not even to think. To be silent; to be alone. All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others...and this self having shed its attachments was free for the strangest adventures.”
                                                                                             Virginia Woolf

Adventures...alone enjoying a latte and a good read—Between the Acts—at the Depot in Lewes; quietly riding the daily bus from High Street to the University of Sussex; silently reading over 500 of Vanessa Bell’s letters at The Keep; discovering Bell’s subtle sense of humor in relating the challenges of being British and traveling by automobile throughout Italy during the 1940’s and 1950’s; visiting Anne of Cleves 15th-century timber-framed Wealden house on Southover High Street; touring the curious medieval, limestone and flint blocks Lewes Castle and taking in the view across the South Downs and Sussex; browsing the antiquarian bookstores along High Street; strolling the many gardens.......and sitting with watercolors, brush and paper, painting an old stone arch and abundant summer flowers;  being oneself, something invisible to others.........