Simplify your life

"As you simplify your life the laws of the universe will be simpler;

solitude will not be solitude,

poverty will not be poverty,

nor weakness weakness."

So said Henry David Thoreau once upon a time.

I understand.

I have come to love my time hiking alone more than a stadium filled with people.

My little hole in the ground is more than the finest house I could ever build.

My friends and family and pets make me wealthy.

And I never feel stronger than when I am kind.

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(Friends, please keep in mind that I am not “telling” anyone how to live here. I am just advocating for each of us to strive to find ways that bring more simplicity to our lives, and am sharing some ways that have helped me in my quest. I realize that even visualizing the word “simple” for one person may invoke a completely different frame of reference for another.)

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I highly value communicating with and visiting people. I truly do. I write at least three personally handwritten notes daily. I also correspond one-on-one by messenger on Facebook with many an ex-student each day. I personally visit the old-fashioned way, face-to-face, with several people each week. And there is, of course, this column.

Yet, I need my alone time; to think deeply.

It is alone that I most like to go on my daily hikes, when and where I seem to think perhaps most deeply of all. Yes, I sometimes hike with friends, but the times I am able to think most clearly and creatively are when I hike deep in the woods alone. Well, maybe not completely alone - God is always there. Indeed, when I am in nature is when I find I am most likely to listen to that still, small Voice - the Light within - without my even trying. It just happens. These times have never been forced, nor induced, nor planned. And they rarely last more than a fleeting moment. But such moments are heaven when they do.

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As for my “little hole in the ground”, that is precisely what it is. I live in a basement. A mostly unfinished basement. The entire floor is concrete. There are no windows. No ceiling. And only one door.