Sunday, August 10, 2008

Quotable quotes

Hello to my oh-so-dedicated friends and family who still read my blog a YEAR after its beginning. You are amazing! Next time we meet, I will give you a big hug of thanks, but until then I give you a gold star!
This week I will not recount stories of herding and being bitten by small children in mass, scary allergic bee stings or an incredible homecoming hour of adoration that moved me to smiles, laughter, tears and songs of praise. Rather, I will let another much more articulate man do so. I have recently started reading “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer and found a quote by Thoreau so inspiring that I want to read Walden again (the first time through I struggled with the cliff notes). So, find a quiet place and be inspired by the following:

“No man ever followed his genius till it mislead him. Though the result were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry more immortal,--that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality.... The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched. “

One may live a life full suffering or challenges, but I think life will emit those sweet fragrances, weather living in Honduras, traveling the world, or working a 9-5 at a construction site. We are challenged to pick a path that we believe in and the truly experience and greet each moment with joy.

Go. Greet your days and nights with joy.

Jenny