Living Deliberately

Henry David Thoreau once wrote about an experiment of sorts where he lived in the woods by Walden Pond.  He did so out of a desire to "live deliberately...to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...and not when I had come to die discover that I had not lived." (From Thoreau's Walden)  For years after reading this I felt a sense of guilt almost, wondering what I was doing wrong and what I was missing.  Which brings me to today.  This morning I climbed Arthur's Seat, a large hill that dominates the Edinburgh skyline, and gives an awe inspiring view for miles all around.  For some reason as I climbed up, amidst the wildflowers on a bright and sunny morning, the words came to my mind and I realized that while I was no Thoreau I had been striving to live deliberately for some time.

I thought about how it doesn't take that much to get there.  There have been times in my life when my goal was simply to survive, to endure and to get by.  Not surprisingly, those times are bland, and incredibly unhappy.  It is like looking forward to something that will never come.  It is waiting for that mythical tomorrow where happiness just arrives, without doing anything to cultivate that happiness.  Or we can seek to truly live, and learn, and laugh and love.  We can accept the pain and sorrows of the world, and cry and grow from the hard times.  We can make friends, and cherish those relationships.  We can look at the beauty of the world around us and marvel.  We can be perplexed and confused, and accept that some things are simply beyond full comprehension.  In essence, we can seek to endure waiting for a happiness to come, or we can seek to create that joy in our lives now.  The choice is ours.  All of us can create our own personal Walden pond experiences.  We can all find quiet moments to reflect on life and see if we are truly living.  In my personal experience I know that doing so will bring a greater depth to life, and bring a greater joy and peace.  Even our Waldens will have rainy and sorrow filled days, but as we truly seek to LIVE then we will someday look back at those times and realize the strength that comes from hard times.  And then when the day comes for us to move past this life we can have the peace of knowing that we truly have lived.