Reveries of the Solitary Walker

"Everything is in constant flux on this earth. Nothing keeps the same unchanging shape, and our affections, being attached to things outside us, necessarily change and pass away as they do. Always out ahead of us or lagging behind, they recall a past which is gone or anticipate a future which may never come into being; there is nothing solid there for the heart to attach itself to. Thus our earthly joys are almost without exception the creatures of a moment; I doubt whether any of us know the meaning of lasting happiness. Even in our keenest pleasures there is scarcely a single moment of which the heart could truthfully say: 'Would that this moment could last forever!..'"

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker

In his final work, Reveries of the Solitary Walker, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, walking in the streets of Paris, misunderstood and rejected, was pondering about happiness, its transience and fluidity, and the futility of human attempts to shackle and hold on to it. Happiness is unachievable but perhaps one can get in touch with it in the moments that come and go, that one cannot hold on to but only be fully present in, "which leave in the soul no void needing to be filled". In a meaningful conversation with a person from a different walk of life, in awe of art, in a solitary walk, in a therapeutic encounter, when one can be completely oneself...

Following Rousseau in his hometown Geneva, which disowned him once upon a time, it seemed like I could get in touch with some of those moments. In a solitary walk through the narrow streets, in the house where he was born, by the lake watching graceful swans...

And in the moment of reverence created by art: a cante jondo, a profound, deep song of flamenco, sang to the wonderful el toque, the sound of the guitar, and passionate moves of the flamenco dancer...

And in the conversations with interesting, diverse personalities. As a member of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association I was grateful to the Canadian-Swiss Chamber of Commerce to have been invited to a community gathering hosted by the Association of the International Chambers of Commerce.

Grateful for these precious moments and encounters.