“I went to the woods because I wished 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. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms...” —Henry David Thoreau
I spent two hours in a forest yesterday and I should have spent longer. Soft, pine needle ground underfoot makes you feel as if you could just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I want to be alone in the woods for a long, long time. It's a place to escape and a place to release, to breathe out, to get rid of the angst that builds when one doesn't do enough, what? life? I can feel it inside but it's not always there. Usually there is beneficence....
