Post#13: Walden

Author: Henry David Thoreau

When was the last time that you observed the world around? Are we too busy amassing material possessions and performing mundane tasks? It might be important to step back and start thinking about what we’re doing in our day-to-day. In Walden by Henry Thoreau, he talks about retreating himself into the woods in order to understand what it is to live fully.

“I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run “ Walden – Henry Thoreau

Thoreau opens up by talking about how most people are busy building imaginary castles, as a consequence, they’re ignoring the most essential aspects of life and toiling their lives aways in the process. Material possessions are just anchors which chain us down to the emptiest aspects of life. Life is not a synonym of working day and night. Life is meant to be lived to the fullest. This can mean different things for different people. For each of us, the goal should lie in discovering what life means to us and what brings us happiness. We have everything we need inside ourselves. Retrospection is key if we want to understand ourselves and the way we live. Exploring ourselves is what we should strive for. To explore oneself extensively.

“But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool’s life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before “ Walden – Henry Thoreau

We work incessantly not knowing when our times will come.We should work on what makes us happy. Life is not black and white. It is more like the rainbow. Experimenting with the different colors opens a world of its own for each color we focus on. Time won’t be enough to explore all aspects life brings, but our personalities, attitudes, and behaviors can point us in the right direction to begin with. Life itself already counts with all we need to be happy.

“If you cannot buy books and newspapers, for instance, you are but confined to the most significant and vital experiences; you are compelled to deal with the material which yields the most sugar and the most starch. It is life near the bone where it is sweetest “ Walden – Henry Thoreau

The best way to learn something is by having a direct connection to what we are trying to learn or understand. There is no substitute for firsthand experiences. We don’t need to look for entertainment because life itself is the amusement. We just haven’t explored it completely.

“It would be well, perhaps, if we were to spend more of our days and nights without any obstruction between us and the celestial bodies.” Walden – Henry Thoreau

We have created these big social hubs of interconnection called cities. We are so connected, yet so distant from our true selves. We create and advance rapidly with no end in mind. However, we should also stop and ponder about why we do things and how we’re contributing to the world.We have lost contact with Nature and the universe at large. A few years back, the universe would remind us of our insignificance and humble us. This could be achieved just by looking at a starry night and realizing how vast the universe is. Nowadays, there’s no such thing as starry night, due to pollution and lights of the cities, we are unable to even see and experience night as we knew it. We have distanced ourselves from Nature. Maybe, it is not about making bigger and faster things, but to reduce life to its rawness, to its lowest terms.

“If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal- that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality. Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man. The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.” Walden – Henry Thoreau

There is so much to explore and so little time that dedicating ourselves to other mundane tasks is an act that is punished by leading a miserable life. We should try to use our time to stop, observe, wonder, and ponder about our surroundings, our relationships with others, and most importantly our inner selves.

Additional Resources:

360° view of some parts of Walden Pond

This is where Thoreau lived when he wrote Walden

Walden by Henry David Thoreau (Audibook)

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