Senior Tips from Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817 in the small New England village of Concord, Massachusetts. There Thoreau spent most of his life wandering the fields, woodlands, ponds and streams. In 1862, at the relatively young age of 45, Henry David Thoreau was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, a victim of tuberculosis. During his abbreviated life, Thoreau thought and wrote words from which Americans in succeeding generations have drawn inspiration and direction. Even though Thoreau never lived to be a "senior citizen" by our modern definition, these bits of wisdom, drawn from his Journal , provide what might be called senior tips from Henry David Thoreau.

1. "It is a great art to saunter" Henry David Thoreau lived during an age when the railroad was becoming a much heralded method of travel. From his little corner of the world Thoreau in many ways lamented the progress that seemed to interfere with or disturb nature. Thoreau himself was a man who spent much of his time walking about on his own two feet. But to Thoreau the word walking really didn't give full meaning to the perambulation which he so enjoyed. To walk, it seemed, was something one did if one had a destination, some place one needed to go. But sauntering was an art. It mean moving on your own feet without regard to time or commitments, simply setting out with no particular destination and enjoying every bit of nature that one encountered.

These words contain a great senior tip from Henry David Thoreau. Seniors have arrived at that point in their lives when they can give up walking, to get somewhere or arrive some place. Instead as Thoreau implies seniors can take up the art of sauntering, setting off without announced destination and stopping or going in total freedom. No longer bound by the rules, working five days a week and on the clock, seniors can take full advantage and go for a " saunter" that will relax and refresh them every time.