11.25.2013

out of the woods
...Thoreau's Journal: 25-Nov-1850

I feel a little alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit. I would fain forget all my morning’s occupation, my obligations to society. But sometimes it happens that I cannot easily shake off the village; the thought of some work, some surveying, will run in my head, and I am not where my body is, I am out of my senses. In my walks I would return to my senses like a bird or a beast. What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods?

4 comments:

gnox said...

Thought there was something odd about this entry, so i checked the 1906 edition online at Walden.org. It reads: " ... the thought of some work, some surveying,
will run in my head, and I am not where my body is,
I am out of my senses . In my walks I would return to
my senses like a bird or a beast." Now that makes more sense!

son rivers said...

Well, that was quite the typo, eh? Thanks for the correction. I've edited the entry accordingly. Thank you for this help above and beyond...

Regina said...

What a great reflection !

As I live in one of those big cities with hardly any woods or (real) nature I am always delighted and concentrated on nature when I have the chance to go there - I hardly ever would take my thoughts and sorrow with me then.

But I also found out that I can keep this observation in order to help me through this city of concrete:

I oftenly walk through these grey streets and suddenly I find out that in my inner pictures I was in a wonderful green forest in a magnificent nature....

Might sound crazy but really helps me to cope with a totally-Non-Walden-Life.

michael jameson said...

we have all been many places with our thoughts else where,nature is a good place to bring body back to soul.