Grandly Related

In the streets and in society I am almost invariably cheap and dissipated, my life is unspeakably mean. No amount of gold or respectability would in the least redeem it,-- dining with the Governor or a member of Congress!! But alone in the distant woods or fields, in unpretending sprout-lands or pastures tracked by rabbits, even in a bleak and, to most, cheerless day, like this, when a villager would be thinking of his inn, I come to myself, I once more feel myself grandly related, and that cold and solitude are friends of mine. I suppose that this value, in my case, is equivalent to what others get by churchgoing and prayer. I come home to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home. I thus dispose of the superfluous and see things as they are, grand and beautiful. I have told many that I walk every day about half the daylight, but I think they do not believe it. I wish to get the Concord, the Massachusetts, the America, out of my head and be sane a part of every day. Henry David Thoreau

Downstream Views

Dear Faithful Readers:
Forgive me for not posting in such a long time. I have no excuses.
Today's quote:

A town is saved, not more by the righteous men in it than by the woods and swamps that surround it. Henry David Thoreau

Comment on today's quote: Thoreau was way ahead of his time when he wrote this. We have come to understand the truth of these words but still have great difficulty acting on this truth. From Walking, published in the Atlantic Monthly soon after Thoreau died in 1862.
Top photo: looking down the Croton River from Nordica Drive, Croton-on-Hudson.

Bottom photo: looking down the Hudson River to Croton Point with Hook Mountain and Tallman Mountain in the hazy background. From Finney Farm, Croton-on-Hudson.