Living Deliberately
Henry David Thoreau said that the reason he went off to live alone in a small hut near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, was “to live deliberately.”
Thoreau provides us with a marvelous compass for how to experience this July day, or any day, by living it deliberately. This calculated living begins at sunrise with the deliberate intention to absorb every crumb of the day or as Thoreau said, “I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow out of life…to know it by experience.” Few of us live this way. Instead, we allow ourselves to be swept along by a tidal wave of activities that result in accidental, inadvertent living. Sadly, we are trapped inside our heads. The escape route out of this half-living is to become a master criminal. Courts make judgments about whether an offense is a deliberate act, i.e., intentionally calculated and premeditated, and therefore more severely punished than those committed on impulse. Premeditate how you will cleverly pilfer all the delights, pleasures, and life out of this day by living it deliberately.
Shock me out of shallow living,
to deliberately commit myself
to dive deep inside this gifted day,
tasting, sensing each of its gifts.
From A Book of Wonders by Ed Hays
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Prayer action suggestion:
Call yourself to mindfulness throughout the day as a means to live deliberately. Set the alarm on your cell phone, or send yourself email reminders, to call you to deliberate living.
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