Last month, I ran across this post by Sophie over at LifeWay’s All Access Blog. This particular sentence struck me:

“One of my biggest struggles as a blogger is to make sure that I’m not so busy writing about my life that I forget to live it.”

I think everyone of us that spend any time at all in the blogosphere can relate to that sentiment.

It wasn’t too long after that, when I stumbled upon this quote from Henry David Thoreau:

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

At this moment, I’m writing while looking out a window at a tree blowing back and forth with the wind. If I was so inclined, I could write about it’s majestic beauty, the size and shape of its leaves and the sturdiness of its trunk as it extends its roots deep into the earth. But, only after a walk outside would it be possible to tell you about the texture of its bark, the rustling whisper of the breeze through its leaves, the birdsong of the mating ritual taking place in its branches. Only then could I describe the scent of spring in the air.

Thoreau’s words of yesterday ring true in Sophie’s words of today. If we start living in the shadow of our words instead of our words pouring forth from the riches of our living, then not only do our words become hollow, but so do our lives.

Off to do some living. You?