Thoreau Thursdays (16): An Invitation

“Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity . . . with Nature herself.”
— Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Finding Nature in cut flowers: lupine at the Phinney Farmers' Market

What a blessing to wake up cheerful!  Although I almost always wake up looking forward to the start of a new day, I wish I would awaken with Nature on my mind.  Perhaps this is easier if you live in a little house in the woods.  Too often I wake thinking about all the things I need to accomplish in the next 12 hours.  And when you live in a city, like I do, it’s all too easy to spend all day indoors, at home or at work or in a store or in the car.  (Gene Logsdon, the Contrary Farmer, recently wrote a blog post about this very problem.  You can link to his comments here:  http://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/skywatchers/)

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world.  This makes it hard to plan the day.”
— E. B. White

I usually find my Nature-fix in small doses — noticing a flower in my neighbor’s garden, sampling a bite of fresh produce at the farmers’ market, listening to the cawing of crows . . .  But I think I could do better.  I do think it is restorative and important to spend more time in Nature.  I will take a lesson from Thoreau and make it a daily priority.

“Never a day passes but that I do myself the honor to commune with some of nature’s varied forms.”
— George Washington  Carver

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”
— John Muir

“I thank you God for this amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.”
— e. e. cummings