ADVANCE CONFIDENTLY

What dream about yourself and our world can you advance today?

“I went to the woods because
I wished to live deliberately.
To front only the essential
facts of life.
And see if I could
not learn what it had to teach.
And not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived.”
– Henry David Thoreau

A curator leading a group of schoolchildren begins to give a talk about Thoreau’s life.

He talks of Civil Disobedience: How Thoreau refused to pay taxes that supported slavery and war. How this landed him a night in jail. How Civil Disobedience inspired leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, even Tolstoy, and countless protesters to the Vietnam War, who carried the book in their back pocket.

He describes how Thoreau did not come here to write Walden Pond but to mourn the death of his brother. He came to Walden Pond to heal.

Moments before, while reading Thoreau’s words, I heard the soft strains of flute behind me. The player was a Boston man.

We talked for a while. He told me that, driving here, he realized why he hadn’t visited Walden Pond for so long. He used to come with a woman who was his sweetheart before and after college. She died young and quickly at 35. He hadn’t been here since.

“How are you doing now?” I asked.

“Not bad. You know how it is when you’re dealing with demons.”

I do.

I asked why he came here so often. He said he was completely captivated by Thoreau. He’d read everything he’d ever written.

And the flute?

“I played the flute. When I learned that Thoreau also played the flute, I rushed up here and sat, one day, playing. As I played, I swore I could feel the spirit of Thoreau resting somewhere on these grounds.”

That was more than twenty years ago.
And the man, still, is an ardent, aspiring artist.

***

The curator finishes his teaching and comes to stand with us.

We talk of Thoreau’s social reform through individual reform. I tell the men about the t-shirt I have seen earlier in my journey: “World peace through inner peace.”

The curator responds, “Absolutely.”

***

The man with the flute and I sit on a fallen log and watch light reflect from the water. He tells me how, many years ago, he wanted to die. He decided to try, but life and a neighbor intervened. We discuss how we can lose our will to live. We decide it’s because we can’t answer this question for ourselves: “How do I matter?”

***

Walking in the wake of the schoolchildren, I notice stones scattered near Thoreau’s home site – stones children have left here. I find one stone that seems most significant now.

It reads:

***

1. Social reform through individual reform. What if you could live “the grandest version of the greatest vision you ever had about who you are,” as Neale Donald Walsch suggests? Could that ripple leave a legacy you were proud of?
2. Begin! Advance confidently in the direction of this dream. Define what the grandest version of the greatest vision you ever had about who you are looks like. How would you know you were living this?
3. Celebrate it. For, if you stay on this path, you will“meet with success unexpected in common hours,” as Thoreau affirmed. How will you celebrate?

Today, answering these questions, embarking on this path, you have begun the journey of a thousand miles. You will have taken the first step.

I applaud you, and honor you

Thank you for the ripple you will create.

***

Jillian Robinson is a Certified High Performance Coach whose passion is to help people live their best selves with the consistentfeelings of full engagement, joy and confidence. She loves to interview and coach changemakers and parents committed to positively impact young peoples’ lives. Her vision is that, someday, personal development will be taught as commonly as math and science. When you participate in her programs, you become part of that positive change.