Are you a walker? Do you find yourself talking a walk in the woods, in a city park or garden, watching nature and losing yourself?
Truth be told – I had never been a walker in a wandering, wondering way until after I moved out of New York City three years ago, and began living a less amplified, less hectic, less harried life in a college town close to the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The exotic birds of New England,
the towering maple and oak trees, the little perennial flowers
such as the Golden Marguerite, Achillea, New York Astor, burst into bloom in the front porch and back garden of our area neighbors. All of these gloriously wild and natural creatives have slowly become a part of my physical and emotional landscape.
With that in mind, I found myself in sudden ecstasy when I stumbled upon this exquisite book “Walking”, extolled as a spiritual practice for the health of our being, by transcendentalist, philosopher, and poet Henry David Thoreau. My husband Ken and I had come to have lunch on Independence Day at the Colonial Inn ,where Thoreau had lived for two years (1835-37), afterwards I wandered off into the lobby shop and became instantly drawn to the eclectic collection of books on display including Walden, which describes his outlook on nature and the spirit of life after he moved to live briefly at the Walden Pond.
The majestic beauty of the Walden Pond is jaw-droppingly stunning. The simple delight and profound wisdom Thoreau evoked in his writing compels me to share a few of his most popular quotes. Savor them as you saunter.
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”
“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. “
“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods
“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”