“My life is like a stroll along the beach, as near the ocean’s edge as I can go.” (Henry David Thoreau)

I have lettered these words many times over the years, and find them to be profound and insightful, but also somewhat amusing. After all, “I was born in the sign of water, and it's there that I feel my best…” (Little River Band) You get the idea.

But back to our friend Thoreau. You may find it interesting to learn that “the stroll along the beach” passage above represents just the first two lines of Thoreau’s much longer poem entitled “The Fisher’s Boy,” featured in Thoreau's collection, Poems of Nature (1895). Enjoy!

"My life is like a stroll upon the beach, ⁠As near the ocean's edge as I can go; My tardy steps its waves sometimes o'erreach, ⁠Sometimes I stay to let them overflow.
My sole employment 'tis, and scrupulous care, ⁠To place my gains beyond the reach of tides, Each smoother pebble, and each shell more rare, ⁠Which Ocean kindly to my hand confides.
I have but few companions on the shore: ⁠They scorn the strand who sail upon the sea; Yet oft I think the ocean they've sailed o'er ⁠Is deeper known upon the strand to me.
The middle sea contains no crimson dulse, ⁠Its deeper waves cast up no pearls to view; Along the shore my hand is on its pulse, ⁠And I converse with many a shipwrecked crew."