Sunday, June 8, 2014

Life in the Woods, Walden

We can dwell in Walden literally or figuratively, and even in our dreams
The exact title of Walden is, "WALDEN OR LIFE IN THE WOODS." This just struck me tonight for some reason. If you write it backwards it becomes, "LIFE IN THE WOODS, WALDEN." An obvious thing, but rather telling and appropriate for one who wishes to live a life surrounded in the beauty of the natural world, to notice the world outside, each beautiful blessed moment of it.

In Walden, Life in the Woods, Thoreau writes, "All Good Things Are Wild and Free."
It is the wildness of the woods and the freedom of them that draws me to them. They are the last accessible frontier and we all have one.

Walden, in fact, does not require a wood at all. Walden is everywhere...  a neighborhood park to feed the ducks, a small backyard to watch the birds and feel the wind, steps that open to the morning sunrise or evening sunset. That wildness and freedom we seek out are randomly everywhere you seem to look.

A life in Walden
Is what I love most. 
I want to surround myself
With the wild open air. 
The wind and rain.
To fly like a sparrow.
To hear a songbird's chorus. 
Let me take all of it in
As the days go by. 
My days in Walden are now.