Monday, March 23, 2009
Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862
I really liked this speech and thought it was full of some profound ideas. I loved how it said, " children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live it worthily, but who think they are wiser by experience that is by failure". I really like how that was stated. It reminded me of the scripture passage that we must become as a little child to enter into the gates of the kingdom. Little children are so pure, innocent and have such a positive outlook on life. We need to look to children as the example, how to treat others and forgive and forget. I also like how it said, " when we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of reality". Wow. This is awesome and really shows that we need to take a step back in life and look at what really matters. That although we may get caught up in small or petty things they are just shadows of reality. When we take a step back and are unhurried, we see the things that bring joy and happiness, rather then getting mad and caught up with the tiny things of life. When we get busy step back, calm down and look at life with the same perspective of a child. This was a great speech.
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I really enjoyed this reading as well! People so often hurry through life (especially in our culture) and do not really take the time to enjoy it in the present. Children, when the play life, tend to see what is most important. We all have days where we just waste them and get distracted by our thoughts and things that are not even reality. It is challenging to really live each day in the moment and no one could ever do it perfectly. But it is a good goal to have each morning. It is much better than racing through life, always focused on the future and getting upset about things that ultimately do not even matter.
ReplyDeleteRight on Zach it's all about seeing life thru the eye's of a child. They have dreams, they imagine, they forgive quickly to continue play, they trust, they are sponges to learn and listen. We can learn a lot about the life of a child. As you stated we should step back, made me think how people can't see one tree while standing in the middle of a forest. Sometimes I wonder if that's why God made the aging process resort back to childhood with old age removing and slowing down of our body similar to their second childhood. Something to think about! There is adult diapers, adult memory loss, motor skills slowed and kind of how we entered the world.
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