Thoreau: Morning and Spring

Thank you, Mr. Thoreau, for reminding me what I have been missing and what I should look forward to. Oh in our busy mundane lives how much a luxury a fresh spring morning has been for me! When was the last time that I walked in the fresh air, looked at the beautiful sky, listened to the birds singing and felt my own energetic stride and youth? :(

Always something more important(or shall we say, eminent): school, work, errands, some other trivial matters. Even with Thoreau's reminder I know in my heart I'm not going to take walks in the spring mornings, at least not as often as I would have liked to; but at least in reading his words I let my mind take a walk with him. This somehow brings a sense of tranquility to me after a busy day.

I could also visualize Walden in the winter - never been there in the snow, but I could vividly imagine it, with Thoreau's footprints leading in and out of the lake. His fireplace. The little animals who came to share his meagle cramps and warmth of the hut. The rare visitors. The sounds, including the sound of the trains - that I could also hear from my house in the quiet hours of the night.

Then you just feel such peace and calm, clean and pure; then you feel you do have a soul, and the soul has a refuge. You are recharged and ready to go back to the busy life in the outside world.

I'm not a hermit. Neither was Thoreau, to the contrary of what people conceived of him. His bachelorhood and single lodging at Walden were results of circumstances, not his choice. He loved his friend and family, and he dearly loved us humans.

And he left all his fortune to us.

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Thoreau's Journal: 25-Feb-1859

Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature,—if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you,—know that the morning and the spring of your life are past. Thus may you feel your pulse.