Where I lived, and What I Lived For, a non-fictional essay by Henry David Thoreau, provides us with a glimpse of Thoreau's path unto enlightenment. The narrator uses his masterful transcendentalist prose to describe the two years he spent living in the woods, becoming one with nature. .
Thoreau wants us "to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life-(932) before one realizes on his deathbed that he hadn't really lived. The narrator tells us time is short, to slow down and cherish life, to become one with nature.
As the narrator plans his experiment he considers how he will live off the land. He ponders how he will "layout the land into orchard, woodlot, and pasture-(930). He also examines how best to provide himself shelter, all the while realizing he must remain in balance with nature " for a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone"(930). .
The narrator's affinity for the morning hours not only reflects his love of life, but also of being awake within oneself, and thus in tune with nature. He saw every morning as a chance for rebirth of the body, mind, soul, and everything ethereal. The simple pleasure he took in his daily morning bath, in the pond behind his house, speaks volumes. "Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with nature herself"(931). .
During his amazing journey the narrator is willing to do without some major life conveniences of his time, such as a post office or a newspaper. He claimed that he "never received more than one or two letters in my life that were worth the postage"(933). He urges us to slow down our daily activity, reduce our media intake, and become aware of ones natural surroundings. The narrator goes on to explain why he can do without newspapers, "Once you read of one man being robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident we never need read another"(933).