Here's an inspirational thought for the beginning of 2015, or for that matter, the beginning of tomorrow and every day thereafter:
The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one's curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sun-struck hills every day. Where there is no risk, the emotional terrain is flat and unyielding, and, despite all its dimensions, valleys, pinnacles, and detours, life will seem to have none of its magnificent geography, only a length. It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.
Diane Ackerman
from
A Natural History of the Senses
George - I don't know where you find them but your posts are always inspirational.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Pat. Glad you found this as inspirational as I did.
DeleteIndeed! Life without variousness, risk and mystery would be a flat, one-dimensional affair.
ReplyDeleteLife has such a 'magnificent geography'! If we can but travel it.
Thanks, Robert. You, of course, have nothing to worry about. You seem to always be traveling that "magnificent geography" of life, both literally and metaphorically. On to those "thick, sun-struck hills every day."
DeleteNice to be reminded that life is supposed to be like that! :)
ReplyDeleteYes, and as you well know, Dominic, we all have our days of living like that. The key, I think, is to press on for a little adventure in every day, though I admit that the vicissitudes of life often steal what little time we have.
ReplyDeleteYou've triggered a new train of thought there (I'm thinking of your comments on my icy run post, too) about how one can find adventure and "magnificent geography" in the commonplace. (That run is my bog-standard, everyday, out-the-back-door run for when I'm too busy to do anything else).
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the additional comments, Dominic. Yes, yes, finding the magnificent in the commonplace. That's the key. My wife and I also go for night walks around the neighborhood. One should look up into the night sky daily and see the stars. It's good for the soul.
ReplyDeleteI heard on TV the other week that the most recent attempts to put numbers to "Drake's Equation" suggest that when you look up at a sky full of stars you're probably looking (in your field of vision) at four stars that include inhabited planets in their systems.
ReplyDelete(Regarding my last two comments - I think I thought the first had failed to register, so I sent a similar one a few minutes later!)
I know nothing about "Drake's equation," but the thought that I might be seeing inhabited planets in the the night sky leaves me with even greater awe and wonder. What a marvelous universe, if we can just preserve it.
DeleteI've deleted the second of the earlier comments. Actually, I understood the situation, and thought I had posted only the first comment.
Have a good day!
(George, sorry if I'm repeating this message - Google's rules confuse me) I remember the quote and that I underlined it when I read it. Unfortunately I don't often go back to books I've read. So thank you for re-calling it for me. To me the key word is "various". Our curiosity and interests do not dispel the mysteries of who we are and where we are going, but they make the landscape in between beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks, June. Delighted that you rediscovered this great quote. And I quite agree that the key is to live as variously as possible, to engage life as it unfolds, not as we would necessarily wish it to be.
ReplyDelete"to live as variously as possible..." I'd forgotten about this post! it must have sunk into my subconscious and popped out again when I was writing my most recent post (the one which you commented on -thank you- about repetition in daily life).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the additional comment, Dominic. Glad his quote about living life as variously as possible has continued to resonate with you.
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