Relaxation

I'm not sure if you will be able to tell by the time of this post, but it is early, very early in the morning. I point this out only to my friends who say I don't relax. I do. Truly. I am not on the same timetable is all. I prefer to relax with someone, until then, I relax when I can.

To say I know very little about relaxation would seem like an understatement to some who know me. Those who know me best know that I must have an insight into some form of relaxation. Otherwise, how can I do what I do? I relax based only upon need now. My goal is to get to a time and place in my life where I relax because it is what I can do, freely and deliberately...and oh, with someone.

I came across the following while I was relaxing actually and I would like to share the following passages from "Thoreau on Man & Nature", a compilation by Arthur G. Volkman from the writings of Henry D. Thoreau.

Chapter 8. Relaxation.

Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rail. Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently and without perturbation let company come and let company go, let the bells ring and the children cry - determined to make a day of it. Why should we knock under and go with the stream?

he goes on to say in that same Chapter;

Nature never makes haste; her systems revolve at an even pace. The buds swell inperceptibly, without hurry or confusion, as though the short spring days were an eternity. Why, then, should man hasten as if anything less than eternity were allotted for the least deed? The wise man is restful, never restless or impatient. He each moment abides where he is, as some walkers acutally rest the whole body at each step, while others never relax the muscles of the legs till the accumulated fatigue obliges them to stop short.

I am well aware that I need to relax more. We all do. Societal and economic demands these days seem to leave us little time for ourselves, for our families, for our friends. I can sum all of this up using his one line, "Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature.." That is where I hope to be someday soon.