Famed Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning was frail and suffered from an incurable illness that lasted the length of her adult life. As a result she was often found, alone in her sitting room above Wimpole Street, gazing out the windows, watching life go by and writing her thoughts down for all of us to read more than one hundred years later. According to one biographer, before her marriage to Robert Browning, she sought to escape her loneliness by watching the passersby and speculating with her sisters, on the escapades that might be taking place on the street.
In these days, I find myself in similar straights, without a partner and not in the best of health. Unable to venture very far from home on my own. Like Elizabeth, I look for something to occupy my mind. Unlike Elizabeth, I did not find much inspiration as it is almost impossible for me to turn off my life long television habit. I do read, quite a lot actually, still there is plenty of time in my life for contemplation and writing in journals, if I would just turn off the T.V. Instead I find myself hiding from contemplation. The day is coming when I will have to turn everything off and regain my ability to be and just that, nothing more.
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