Truth deserves more than our admiration. It deserves our attention, our application and—when we quote another person—our accuracy.
Henry David Thoreau stood up to live before he sat down to write. What he discovered continues to invite us away from distraction and toward the deeper places of life.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Henry David Thoreau remains one of my favorites. You must do yourself a good service and visit this man’s writings and philosophy. They will enrich you and give you great reason to pause—and then admire the depth, breadth and width of life and all its mysteries.
STAND UP TO LIVE
“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
That one moves me every which way. Here we receive insight into Thoreau’s mind and how what we share should come from experience. The mastery of the inner places does not come from merely watching life. It comes from true living.
Before you teach it, live it.
Before you write it, experience it.
Before you announce that you know it, allow life to test what you believe.
WHAT DO YOU SEE?
Thoreau’s actual words were:
“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”
That is a haunting thought. It reminds us to PAUSE and allow what we are observing to speak to us.
Two people can look at the same circumstance and see entirely different things. One sees an ending while the other sees a beginning. One sees failure while another discovers instruction. One sees an obstacle while another recognizes a new direction.
Looking uses the eyes.
Seeing requires awareness.
LOOKING BACK
The popular advice to never look back unless you intend to travel in that direction is often credited to Thoreau, although no original Thoreau source has been established.
The lesson still feeds me well.
There is a time to reflect and another time to move on. Know what you are about and then go in that direction. With so much living still to be done, forward and progressive movement should dominate.
Use yesterday as a teacher—not as a permanent address.
BE YOURSELF
Another familiar passage tells us to be ourselves rather than somebody else’s idea of who we should be. That wording came from the play The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, not from Thoreau’s own pen.
Still, the idea speaks directly to the uniqueness we each carry into the cosmos.
First, BE who you are.
Then DO from that being.
Finally, HAVE the natural rewards that flow from it.
BE—DO—HAVE is the proper order. Trying to reverse it causes us to chase appearances while neglecting the person within.
WHAT LIVES WITHIN
The thought that what lies behind and ahead of us is small compared with what lives within us belongs to writer Henry Stanley Haskins.
Its proper ownership does not diminish its wisdom.
Spend time on the inner journey, for its value is incalculable. It is the true coin of this earthly realm. If something within you is not serving, growing or performing—examine it honestly and dispense with what must go.
The outside journey can only travel as far as the inside person is prepared to go.
BE GOOD FOR SOMETHING
Thoreau advised us not to be merely good, but to be good for something.
That takes us beyond piousness, boasting and arrogance. Goodness is not a trophy we place on a shelf. It should move through our hands, our choices and our service to others.
What good is your goodness doing?
Who is stronger because you lived?
Who found encouragement because you spoke?
Who discovered another way because you shared what life taught you?
LIVE IN THE PRESENT
Thoreau urged us to live in the present, launch ourselves upon every wave and find eternity in each moment.
What we are looking for is not always waiting in some distant place. Much of it is here—NOW—obtainable and beckoning.
Do not stand upon your island of opportunity staring endlessly toward another land. Respect the moment you are in because it leads to everything else.
There is no other life but this one presently asking to be lived.
QUIET DESPERATION
Thoreau wrote in Walden:
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
The familiar addition about going to the grave with the song still inside us was attached later and resembles words from Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Both thoughts remain powerful, but truth deserves the truth.
Too many people do carry an unsung song. They postpone their purpose, silence their gifts and wait for permission that may never come.
Sing while you are here.
Live while you are here.
Share what has been given to you while someone is still here to receive it.
TRUTH DESERVES TRUTH
A quotation does not become wiser because a famous name has been attached to it. Correcting its ownership does not weaken the message—it strengthens our respect for truth.
Thoreau does not need borrowed words. His authentic writings contain more than enough treasure, edification, encouragement and blessing for anyone willing to pause, hear and appreciate them.
FINAL THOUGHT
Wisdom is not something to collect and display. It is something to examine, live and share.
Let the words of others awaken you—but allow your own life to prove what is true.
PEARLS INSIGHT
The deepest writing comes from a life that has been fully entered. Stand up to live before sitting down to explain life to someone else.
PEARLS FROM THE BOOKS
A pearl begins as an irritation that is patiently transformed. Truth can work the same way. It challenges us, unsettles comfortable assumptions and—when welcomed—becomes wisdom we can carry and offer to others.
PEARLS CONNECTION
Thoreau calls us away from sleepwalking. He invites us to observe more carefully, live more deliberately and become acquainted with the person within.
That invitation remains open.
RICHIE SPEAKS
A quotation does not become truer by borrowing a famous name. Give the truth—and its rightful owner—their proper due.
FINAL SAY
Mr. Thoreau stood up and lived. Then he sat down and shared what life had revealed.
Now it is our turn.
Thank you, Mr. Thoreau.
Well lived. Well written. Well done.
— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
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