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Renewal in the Woods

  “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 practice 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, Walden For the better part of a week I have been hanging out in the woods, hugging trees and drinking in freshly-released oxygen. Standing on a trail surrounded by moss-laden rocks and trees while three feet from the river, I intentionally stood still and invited...

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Drinking In Emerson

The last two years have been full of taking Emerson breaks.  Not coffee or tea breaks, well maybe those to, but taking time by myself to sit quietly and ingest Ralph Waldo Emerson. My favorite is of his essays is Self Reliance.  Many years ago, maybe ten, I took a trip to Concord Massachusetts and toured Emerson’s home where I touched his black robe when no one was looking.  I am not sure what I expected to happen, it wasn’t like Jesus touching the hem of the woman’s garment, but I touched it none-the-less and for a moment breathed deeply.  In my imagination I was indulging in an energy transfusion. I went on to take a “Transcendentalist Tour” and was the only one who showed up, which meant I had a history professor turned tour guide all to myself.  Did you know the Transcendentalists believe God is an inner experience and connected with through intuition?  This, now, commonly held belief was revolutionary at the time. Concord was a hotbed of...

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