“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately.”
The move to the woods is a deliberate experiment in stripping away distraction and paying closer attention to living.
Walden, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For.”
“I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.”
The ordinary and the cosmic are placed on the same continuum of wonder, resisting the habit of treating small things as insignificant.
Song of Myself, in Whitman’s catalogue of equal wonders.
“To be awake is to be alive.”
Being fully attentive is presented as a deeper form of living than merely moving through routine.
Walden, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For.”
“While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.”
Limited time turns character into a present-tense responsibility rather than a future intention.
Meditations, Book IV, in George Long’s translation.
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
Awareness of limited time is turned into a reason to choose more wisely rather than merely fear mortality.
Psalm 90:12 in the King James Version.
“When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.”
Work is imagined as a way of giving form to passing time, connecting effort with participation and expression.
The Prophet, “On Work.”
“Life seems neither long nor short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees and stars.”
Immersion in the mountains changes the felt pressure of time, replacing hurry with attention to rhythms that do not follow human schedules.
My First Summer in the Sierra, June 13 journal entry.
