Good
morning!
I
thoroughly believe in starting my morning sloooooowwly. Reading the
morning paper, sometimes knitting as I listen to the radio, flipping
through some websites I follow on my Ipad... Having some “me”
time first thing in the morning leaves me much calmer and better able
to deal with whatever is happening that day.
Too
busy, you say? Hmmm. It's worth getting up half an hour earlier.
Try it!
Anyway,
I digress.
This
morning, I happened upon this quote:
“I
am alarmed when it happens
that
I have walked a mile into the woods bodily,
without
getting there in spirit...
The
thought of some work will run in my head
and
I am not where my body is -
I
am out of my senses.
In
my walk I would fain return to my senses.
What
business have I in the woods,
if
I am thinking of something out of the woods?”
-
Henry David Thoreau
So
true, but it's so much more than just a walk in the woods. How often
do we spend more time concentrating on taking a photo “for the
record” and less time enjoying the thrill of the moment as a three
year old blows out her candles?
Yes,
there's a time for multi-tasking and there's value in thinking ahead
to the next step as you work on something, but Henry's so right when
he admonishes us to putting all of our senses to work as we live the
moment.
You
might be interested in reading more:
by
Maria Popova at brainpickings.org
Always
on the hunt for a good book, Maria links to another author I plan to
check out:
“...as
cognitive scientist Alexandra Horowitz invites us to believe in her
breathlessly wonderful On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes
– a record of her quest to walk around a city block with eleven
different “experts”, from an artist to a geologist to a dog, and
emerge with fresh eyes mesmerized by the previously unseen
fascinations of a familiar world. ...undoubtedly one of the most
stimulating books of the year...”
You
can read her article about this book here.
And
for the little three year old who just blew out the candles?
Have
a wonderful, slow, simple Friday!
No comments:
Post a Comment