During my heady youth I found the words of Henry David Thoreau. At first it was just select quotes via brainyquote.com, then I purchased a used copy of Walden. I finished that a few days before being assigned the task of reading Civil Disobedience. His words made sense to me during a point in my life when not a lot did. Through college I used Thoreau’s writings as much as possible through my varied liberal arts education, I even started growing a beard and sauntering. More importantly during these years was my rediscovery of fly fishing. Blending my new held ideals of simplicity and nature with the pursuit of wild trout finally gave me a sense towards the meaning of life. I guess I’m still searching for the answer, but I do understand the point of trying to live well while looking.

So I’m not going to give you a recap of my 2012 through pictures or video, rather a quote by Thoreau that sums it up better than I ever could…

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favour in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ~Henry David Thoreau

 

wishing everyone as fishy new year,

beer