Go simple and make it simpler!

“Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs,

in undisturbed solitude and stillness…”

“WaldenㅡLife in The Woods” by Henry David Thoreau

U.S. naturalist, essayist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau built a tiny log cabin in 1845 and lived two years and two months in the forests near Walden Pond, Massachusetts, the United States. Doing absolutely nothing all day long, he cast a look toward the forest. Not until he found the sunset from the west windows or a carriage sound from afar, had he realized that time flew. He recalled that his inner self matured in such a time of solitude just as corns grow tall overnight.

When I was a high school junior, a paperback on the shelf of a bookstore around my school captivated my attention. Since then, “Walden” by Thoreau has been my emotional rock and the most precious literature of my lifetime. For the last several decades, I have not been able to stop being reminded of a philosopher in a humble outfit sitting in front of the cabin in the forests of silence with the glitter of his serene eyes and letting himself wandering in contemplation. My dreams have always been to build a cabin of my own in a rural village. I wish to sun myself with an empty mind. It may be way better for me to let go of any chance to contemplate and gaze at the forests hoping my inner ego to grow just as corns do.

We are living in a world where everyone racks their brains to figure out how to enhance material affluence and what it will take to amass a vast fortune. Our top interest is money, wealth and success. The desired values of our time overwhelmed by busyness and insecurity well explain why “Walden” by the 19th-century philosopher has long been well-received for his way of seeking simplicity in life. As Thoreau’s philosophical consideration hits the mark of life, he may allow the modern-day slaves of possessiveness to enjoy a time of rest, inner peace and reflection.