Solitude on the Path

"But everything that once perhaps will be possible to many, the solitary man can already prepare for and build now with his hands, which go less astray.  Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and bear the pain which it has caused you with fair-sounding lament.  For those that are near you are far, you say, and this shews that distance begins to grow around you.  And when your nearness is far, then your distance is already among the stars and very great; be glad of your growing, into which you can take no one else with you, and be good to those that remain behind, and be self-possessed and quiet with them and do not torment them with your doubts and do not frighten them with your confidence or joy, which they could not comprehend.  Seek some unpretending and honest communion with them, which you are under no necessity to alter when you yourself become more and more different; love life in a strange guise in them, and make allowance for those aging people who fear the solitude in which you trust.  Avoid furnishing material for the drama which is always impending between parents and children; it uses up much of the children’s strength and wastes away the love of their elders, which is operative and warm even when it does not comprehend.  Demand no advice from them and reckon with no understanding; but believe in a love that is preserved for you like a heritage, and trust that in this love there is a strength and a blessing which you are not bound to leave behind you though you may travel far!"

"It is good that you are entering first of all upon a profession which makes you independent and places you on your own in every sense.  Wait patiently to see whether your innermost life feels constrained by the form of this profession.  I consider it a very difficult one and a hard taskmaster, as it is burdened with much convention and gives hardly any scope to a personal interpretation of its tasks.  But your solitude will be your home and haven even in the midst of very strange conditions, and from there you will discover all your paths.  All my wishes are ready to accompany you, and my trust is with you."

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke