(I've added line breaks to emphasize meaning, but the text is his)

“There is no safe investment.
To love at all is to be vulnerable.
Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken.

If you want to make sure of keeping it intact,
you must give your heart to no one,
not even an animal.

Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries;
avoid all entanglements;
lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.

But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change.
It will not be broken;
it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation.
The only place
outside Heaven
where you can be perfectly safe
from all the dangers and perturbations of love
is Hell.

I believe that the most lawless and inordinate loves are less contrary to God’s will
than a self-invited and self-protective lovelessness…

We shall draw nearer to God,
not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves,
but by accepting them and offering them to Him;
throwing away all defensive armour.

If our hearts need to be broken,
and if He chooses this as a way in which they should break,
so be it.

What I know about love
and believe about love and giving ones heart
began in this.”

In brief

Canoes - Jake and I rented one. Suddenly I saw Concord in a whole new way--and canoeing is hard, but I am so glad my dad spent time helping me learn this.

Firehose - too much information at the seminar. I resolved to take only Anne-size sips, to take the time to reflect, and to silence the "Perform. Perform. Perform" voice that tries to overwhelm the voice of quiet reason, of humility (I can do what I can do--and no more).

Dunkin Donuts. We went in for a dozen--and got an extra dozen because it's closing time!

Folks here in Concord have been so cool. I may move---


or not.

I'm a-fixin' to get ready to approach Walden. Jake and I are driving to the Boston area on Saturday. I'll be at a seminar at the Thoreau Institute with far more than Henry took to Walden Pond.

Sunday: field trip to Walden Pond and orientation
Monday: A Day along the Concord River - canoeing and context
Tuesday: Thoreau's Landscape
Wednesday: Thoreau and Nature Journaling
Thursday: Transcendentalism and Social Conscience
Friday: Putting Thoreau's Words into Action

I've been looking forward to this for so long that it hit me with quite a shock yesterday that it's this week! Rental car, reservations, planning activities with Jake (DuckTours! Freedom Trail!), itineraries, packing, reading and lessons to share, readying the house and pets for their sitter Jessica, getting refills, and so on.

Simpler would be better.

In other news,

Four baby birds have hatched in the nest built over our front door. The kitties have enjoyed the show immensely, but would, I'm afraid, like to welcome the birdies into a far more intimate relationship, albeit a very short-lived one.

My SAT Prep summer class is moving along, but I think everyone is looking forward to our break next week. I still have to find someone everytime to open the door (and there's only one key in the WHOLE building evidently for the lab). This time, I gave the custodian a huge slab of freshly baked cake after he let us in--maybe that will help him remember us.

I have been keeping horrible hours--staying up far too late. I find that I so crave the relative quiet after the kids have at least gone upstairs to think, to read, to write--but I must balance that with the very real needs of my body, my Jake, and my Becca.