Walden, Part 2

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately… 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.”
~~ Thoreau, Walden





I’ve written about Walden Pond before.  And I’ve been inspired to write about Walden again because of my dear, sweet friends Mrs. Mediocrity and Wholly Jeanne.  It seems we’ve somehow made Walden Pond into a verb.  It was a natural transition during a discussion, this evolution of language.  I’m fairly certain Thoreau would approve.  It was quite a transcendental experience.


The three of us wish to walden.  What does it mean to walden?  We’re still working that out.  But to be sure I want it to mean that we are seeking to live deliberately.  To live with purpose.  To live with excitement in knowing that what we do is colorful and bursting with exception. 


To walden.  


“Things do not change; we change” when we walden.  We change in order to see the world, be the world, and experience the world.  The conflicts and joys might be the constants in our lives, on a the perpetual timeline that we are to experience, but as we walden along, we flicker.  We deliberately live.  We wrap our arms around life and breathe it in. 


Waldening can be exhausting business, but it can be thrillsome, too.  


When we walden… it’s not done in a specific time or place.  It’s a conscious choice, a deliberate act.  With ever word we write, every breath we take, each moment we live. This is walden. “To be awake is to be alive” when we walden.  


I am awake; I am alive.  Let’s walden. 
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Published by C. Streetlights

I wrote and illustrated my first bestseller, "The Lovely Unicorn" in the second grade and I've been terrified of success ever since. Published by ShadowTeamsNYC and represented by Lisa Hagen Books

2 thoughts on “Walden, Part 2”

  1. Thoreau is smiling and smiling large. We will walden, and when we forget or when life tests and teases us, we will wrap our arms around each other (our digital arms until One Day gets here), and whisper reminders to walden 'cause friends don't let friends forget to walden. And for the record, I can't think of anybody I'd rather walden with than you and kelly.

  2. oh my. truthfully, this made me cry, on a saturday that i spent working when i wasn't supposed to be, a week that was filled with gray and questions and lots of time NOT living deliberately, lots of time living other people's demands and jobs and requests, and very little time living the deliberate way that I want to.

    Very little time waldening.

    "We wrap our arms around life and breathe it in."

    That is how I want to live, every day. I try and I try but it doesn't always work out. But I refuse to stop trying.

    I've written those words down, in the journal that I carry with me, everywhere. A reminder for me to Walden, whenever, wherever, I can.

    I thank you, for that.

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