Monday, October 1, 2012

Thoughts on Walden

I am currently working my way through Thoreau's Walden, and it's definitely not the "can't put it down" type.  However, loving him and his ideas as I do, there is no choice but to do it.  As I am reading his descriptions of moving away from society and making his home in the woods around Walden Pond for two years, I can just feel the solitude and serenity.  As I look at the blazing colors of autumn that are abundant right now, I can almost hear him walking through the woods and hear the crunching of the leaves. 

He talks about not being lonesome; if you can become one with the nature that surrounds you, one need not be lonesome.  If you can become one with the universe that envelopes us, there is companionship in that.  I tend to be an introvert, a loner, one that can't seem to handle extended time with noise and people.  So for me, the thought of living deliberately away from the constraints of society, sounds like paradise.  I love days that just unfold, ones that have no agenda. 

 
I would rather sit on a pumpkin all by myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion
Henry David Thoreau
 
 
 
 
 Thought for the day:  I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn from what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.       Henry David Thoreau

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