Six Walks Quotes

“Is this why a parent’s death is so devastating? That of all the witnesses lined up in your life, losing a parent is losing the biggest one, the one who drummed you up out of nowhere and saw you, and saw you, and saw you?”
― Ben Shattuck, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau

“In other words, walking through the dark forest, you might eventually look up through the trees, see that the sky above is the same as the sky over the sunny pasture, that it is one canopy of light spread over your whole life’s landscape. Grief and joy are in the same life, but it’s only in the forest where you notice the shafts of sunlight spilling through.”
― Ben Shattuck, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau

“That, in fact, nothing is as simple as it seems, or, more, nothing is at all as it seems, and usually older. That this ground could have been carried by the wind before settling here.”
― Ben Shattuck, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau

“Only when the sun has gone down, when the darkness comes like a swipe of death over the day, do the stars show themselves. Only in darkness, seen.”
― Ben Shattuck, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau

“If we can’t be sure of divinity, we can be sure by the divine feeling of being held in a web of love.”
― Ben Shattuck, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau

“I would never want to bypass those sleepless nights and anxiety because of this fact: that the stars had not changed, the river had not changed, the marsh had not changed. As in, the world around me was always there and waiting to be seen again when I was ready, and when I was ready, it looked only beautiful.”
― Ben Shattuck, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau

“It’s odd to think that nature requires company, because, of course, it doesn’t.”
― Ben shattuck, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau

“I’ve heard that the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea has some of the best bird-watching in the region, with a rare crane species that survives in the buffer of wilderness provided by a history of war. Wouldn’t that be nice, if rare birds were living in every country’s outline?”
― Ben Shattuck, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau