“Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. . . To me, awake is to be alive.” (Walden, 1854) Yes, I Like That and that’s really Walden Pond!
Awakening to a dawn in me conjures up lovely images; a flower gradually opening to the morning sun, the early morning sun–for me, Venice in the early morning sun glowing in a violet haze–I saw that once; the luscious idea of waking in the morning after a good night’s sleep, stretching, wiggling my toes, waiting just a moment before I open my eyes to let in the world. A moment that is singular, mine alone.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) spent two years in a small house at Walden where he writes, “I went to the woods to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
While he was in the woods, living deliberately, he deliberately clashed with organized society by refusing to pay his taxes because he disapproved of the Mexican War and slavery. Out of this incident came his essay titled “Civil Disobedience”. Story goes that Ralph Waldo Emerson, his friend, came by the jail and taunted, “Henry, what are you doing in there?” to which Thoreau replied, “What are you doing out there?” I don’t know if its true but I like that.
And his most popular quote from his concise and eloquent prose . . .
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.”
I really like that!!!
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