I know it is only the end of January, but thoughts of spring still come to mind, especially when the hard weather of recent weeks subsides. This time of year, I pluck from my library shelf Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I look to Thoreau’s writing to support and infuse me with the sought-after enthusiasm that guides me these days. My camp in Maine is the source of the intimate connection between nature and my striving to enjoy life to the fullest. Thoreau devotes a chapter to spring and, though written in an antique style, he lays the foundation for the underpinnings of a positive world that is timeless: “As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos.” He speaks to changes in the environment as an opportunity for personal renewal so that we discover our own “higher latitudes.”
I recently read a more current classic on the environment: Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, as well as her collected correspondence. Her writing has inspired some soul-searching and perspective on man’s destructive effect on nature and what that represents for future generations. Each year, I have noticed the increase in the size of the crowds in the Hamptons, with their polluting autos, as well as the added refuse and sewage impact on our water supply. Yet when I step out onto the spring grass at my camp in Maine, I feel I am stepping back in time.
“Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment,” writes Thoreau. I don’t feel the environmental threat at camp as I do in the Hamptons. There is a respect for the environment in the woods at camp and less of a demand on the resources there. I support the Wheaton Land Trust, whose work is to preserve the land and wildlife in northern Maine. Being at camp in the spring is like a reward for doing my part for the environment.
February 7, 2025
Sierra County Supervisors discuss increasing speed limits and fire safety measures at a recent meeting.
February 7, 2025
February 5, 2025
February 5, 2025
January 28, 2025