This Aimless Life

from the journal of Henry David Thoreau :
November 4, 1852

One must be
out-of-doors
enough to get
experience of
wholesome reality
as a ballast
to thought
and sentiment.
Health requires
this relaxation,
this aimless life.
This life
in the present.
Let a man
have thought what
he will of Nature
in the house,
she will still be
novel outdoors.
I keep out-of-doors
for the sake of the mineral, vegetable, and animal in me.
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canyon wren
hermit thrush
dusky-capped flycatcher