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“I believed that the woods were not tenantless, but chokefull of honest spirits as good as myself any day—not an empty chamber, in which chemistry was left to work alone, but an inhabited house—and for a few moments I enjoyed fellowship with them.” 1
—Henry David Thoreau
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In Henry David Thoreau our modern eye can see a new light. His lucent wisdom warms a rich and sprouting garden of earthy spirituality composted with a keen sense of scientific and philosophical investigation. Thoreau models a specially balanced inquisitive mind that integrates the most profound discoveries of the heart and soul. He embodied the traits of both preservationist and religion professor. He personalized an exciting and fresh paradigm for a symbiosis of related disciplines including philosophy and ecology—a relationship that remains today both rare and sorely needed. Thoreau’s intimacy with the world at his feet touched his hands, his head, his whole being and sunk in. This is best illustrated by his delight in digging into the earth, literally and figuratively, turning over rich soil for reflection and introspection. Because he knew he was made of that earth, he could open himself to the mystery just under the surface, revealed by Nature’s playful and parental care. “Perhaps Nature would condescend to make use of us even without our knowledge, as when we help to scatter her seeds in our walks, and carry burs [sic] and cockles on our clothes from field to field.” 6 The baggy-pants botanist may not have known it, but his clothes bore wondrous seeds for future planting and reaping.
A Light in the Woods is arranged to suggest pilgrimage. We join Thoreau along with poets, writers, spiritual guides, shamans and saints, to saunter as sojourners deeper into Nature’s miracles. When I first walked alongside Henry in college I knew that he would be with me for years ahead. Every essay or poem inspired me to write and be present in my daily life and yet to remember that words alone cannot express the depths of the heart. For that class at the university I memorized a simple line that stays with me still: “My life has been the poem I would have writ. But I could not both live and utter it.” 7 I believe this is what the great teachers meant when they urged an awareness of the Word beneath the words, the Way beyond the path, the Torah or Gospel hidden near at hand, behind the awe-filled silences that mark moments of being human.
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