Castles in the Air

I was just reading an excerpt from Henry David Thoreau's masterpiece Walden. This is the best quote I have read in quite some time and has come at the most opportune time. It goes as follows:

"I learned this at least, by my experiment; that is one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with unexpected success. 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 will be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will libe with the licence 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 foundations under them...."


How incredibly wonderful! As a college student, I often feel that I'm being pushed down, forced to do this and then the next in a mindless act of lists entitles "to do;" however, after reading this, I feel a new sense of energy to follow my dreams, to do those things that I want to do, no matter how far off they are from the beaten path. What courage Thoreau must have had in leaving behind all he knew to start afresh in a small cabin by the lake. What incredible insights we would discover if we did this in our own lives. This is not to say that we should drop what we're doing and live by a pond, but we should shove aside those "worldly" things in our lives, clear our mind, and allow our imagination to think and discover the castles we have...then, do as Thoreau suggests and "put foundations under them..."!