There is a quiet light that shines in every heart. . . . It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty, our desire to seek possibility, and our hearts to love life. Without this subtle quickening our days would be empty and wearisome, and no horizon would ever awaken our longing. Our passion for life is quietly sustained from somewhere in us that is wedded to the energy and excitement of life. This shy inner light is what enables us to recognize and receive our very presence here as blessing. We enter the world as strangers who all at once become heirs to a harvest of memory, spirit, and dream that has long preceded us and will now enfold, nourish, and sustain us. The gift of the world is our first blessing.
I have met with but one or two persons in the course of
my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking
walks, — who has a genius, so to speak, for sauntering:
which word is beautifully derived "from idle people who
roved about the country, in the Middle Ages, and asked
charity, under pretence of going á la Sainte Terre," to the
Holy Land, till the children exclaimed, "There goes a
Sainter-Terrer," a Saunterer, — a Holy Lander...
Of course it is of no use to direct our steps to the woods,
if they do not carry us thither. I am alarmed when it
happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily,
without getting there in spirit... The thought of some work
will run in my head, and I am not where my body is — I
am out of my senses. In my walks I would fain return to my senses…