Last night I slept in "Melbourne". I went there as night was falling, lit the kerosene lanterns, stuck the USB-stick with Henry David Thoreau's audiobook "Walden" into my small, rechargeable radio, and settled down to a night's "reading".
In his book "Walden", Henry David Thoreau invites us to strip away life's complexities and rediscover what truly matters. Through his experiment in simple living at Walden Pond, Thoreau demonstrated how deliberately reducing our material needs can lead to much greater spiritual and intellectual wealth. His powerful message resonates even more strongly today as we navigate our hyper-connected, consumption-driven world.
There is nothing hyper-connected and consumption-driven about "Melbourne". It's simple, it's basic, it's off-the-grid, and far away from television and telephone, but it seems to teleport me to another time and space where life was simpler and perhaps I was happier as well.
By the time sleep overtook me, I was well into the book and the two kerosene lanterns had burned low. I woke up this morning refreshed, and ready to continue the "Walden" experiment for another night.
