A friend reminded me of this quote yesterday. It was nice to re-visit it and reflect about how its meaning has changed for me this past year…
“You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living. Then you read a book… or you take a trip… and you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second symptom (when hibernating becomes dangerous and might degenerate into death): absence of pleasure. That is all. It appears like an innocuous illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions live like this (or die like this) without knowing it. They work in offices. They drive a car. They picnic with their families. They raise children. And then some shock treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, and it awakens them and saves them from death. Some never awaken.”
~Anais Nin
3 comments
Wow, reading that made my head spin! I am definitely guilty of hibernating. Lots to think about…
Having a picnic with your family and raising your children is living. Traveling or reading a book is simply being a bystander.
Learning about and traveling to other cultures is a must, but to think that that is living is the ultimate cop-out. Standing on the outside looking in is the simplest thing in the world. Slogging it out in the trenches is real living.
I agree with you on some level–I’m never happier than when I’m with my children. But I also feel more ‘alive’ when I’m traveling than I do during my daily routine.