All this waiting. It can't be right. As I played with my son in our back yard this morning I decided to stop waiting, and focus on all the good in my life right now. It wasn't difficult. I looked at him first of all, glorying in his shiningness, the love and connection that radiates between us, almost visible to me some times. He is thriving, and I'm not spending nearly as much energy and time worrying as a result. That's a great thing for both of us. I looked up at the garden all around us, fertile and lush, and Mount Chincogan, my town's 'pet mountain' which you can see from our back yard. As a child I dreamed of living here, and finally, five years ago, pregnant and overawed by the cost and complication of life in our home city of Sydney, my husband and I decided it was time to take the plunge. To move north to this small country town, and see if we could make it work here. By hook and by crook, by dint of miracle after miracle, we have.
I've called this blog Walden because I've been fascinated, from an early age, by the idea of living an intentional life, as Thoreau, the author of 'Walden' did. Of defining success on my own terms, of living experimentally at times, looking for the most satisfying way to spend a day, a week, a season, the most simple way to live. It's what lead me to this town, where a lot of others are attempting to do the same. It's what lead me to the work of writing, giving expression to an urge that has always been there inside. An urge not just to create, but equally, to concentrate. And, of course, I don't need to wait. That's something I have the opportunity to do every moment. Right now.
'Walden (first published as Walden; or, Life in the Woods) is an American book written by noted Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and manual for self reliance.[1]'
While I am inspired by Thoreau, my project is a recognisably different one. Not least because he was a single gentleman, living in the 19th century, whereas I am a woman living with my family at the turn of the 21st. Nevertheless I think we have a lot in common.
Thoreau regarded his sojourn at Walden as an experiment with a threefold purpose. First, he was escaping the dehumanizing effects of the Industrial Revolution by returning to a simpler, agrarian lifestyle. Second, he was simplifying his life and reducing his expenditures, increasing the amount of leisure time in which he could work on his writings (most of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers was written at Walden). Much of the book is devoted to stirring up awareness of how one's life is lived, materially and otherwise, and how one might choose to live it more deliberately. Third, he was putting into practice the Transcendentalist belief that one can best "transcend" normality and experience the Ideal, or the Divine, through nature.
I will be writing more about my Walden-like experiments and experiences, as well as current affairs and other topics, in this blog.
Credits: The quote underneath the blog title: 'A writer is like a dog ...' is by the playwright John Guare. The photo of Byron Bay, the region I live in, is by Maurizio Viani, www.thepocketroad.com. The quote 'As if you could kill time' is from the chapter 'Economy' in Walden. The italicised text and illustration of 'Walden' is from Wikipedia.
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Comments
Can feel your depth and serenity and the joy of love of son and nature's true *magic* . . . sensing you and novels shall go far.
Waldon on,
~ Absolutely*Kate, a fellow afficiando
(about two hours away from Thoreau's locale)
@teascrolls - I love the idea of giving up on the waiting and living for today. It's a way of giving up control, or the illusion of control, anyway, to do that.
@ Absolutely*Kate - thank you for your kind words. I hope your feeling is right! You live 'near' Walden ... have you been? Is any of the original wilderness still there?
@ Lisa and Pocket Road - thanks.
Good luck in your writing, I think I'll look for that copy of Walden and read it soon !!
:-0)
lips and teeth that never quit cognizing
and find the step further,
beyond this "democracy"
to recognize and organizing the rights of man.
To Individuality.
Great, what about everybody else?
Well,
send em to Walden boot camp.
Away from the maddening crowd of mediocre self-justification
that defines moral and financial success.
No more scattering of mindenergy...
time for concentration & intention....
two good hardy goals....
meanwhile the world falls apart.
so fucking what, says the right part of you.
the wrong part says, i am sooooo damn needed......
"i would say to my fellows
once and for all:
live as long as possible
without
commitment"
ha, figure out that one from "economy", you economic mouthflappers
I'm married to a guy who grew up in New Zealand and lived in the Melbourne area for 20 years before moving to the US to be with me. We are seriously considering moving to either NZ or Australia. Your photo, above, is lovely.
Thank you, I need reminding that so many moments in life can be enjoyed, rather than just endured. My husband is reading a book called 'How to be Idle' which he says is helping him to just look around and enjoy the wonderful things that surround him - he had forgotten there were so many...