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Journeys of Simplicity: Traveling Light with Thomas Merton, Bashō, Edward Abbey, Annie Dillard & Others
Where do our journeys take us?
What do we leave behind?
What do we carry with us?
How do we find our way? You are invited to consider a more graceful way of traveling through life. With arresting clarity, Journeys of Simplicity offers vignettes of forty travelers and the few, ordinary things they carried with them―from place to place, from day to day, from birth to death. Edward Abbey • Nellie Bly • Raymond Carver • Dorothy Day • Marcel Duchamp • Dolores Garcia • Emma "Grandma" Gatewood • Mohandas Gandhi • Peter Matthiessen • William Least Heat Moon • John Muir • Robert Pirsig • Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton • Henry David Thoreau • Father Zossima • and others
What do we leave behind?
What do we carry with us?
How do we find our way? You are invited to consider a more graceful way of traveling through life. With arresting clarity, Journeys of Simplicity offers vignettes of forty travelers and the few, ordinary things they carried with them―from place to place, from day to day, from birth to death. Edward Abbey • Nellie Bly • Raymond Carver • Dorothy Day • Marcel Duchamp • Dolores Garcia • Emma "Grandma" Gatewood • Mohandas Gandhi • Peter Matthiessen • William Least Heat Moon • John Muir • Robert Pirsig • Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton • Henry David Thoreau • Father Zossima • and others
128 pages, Hardcover
First published March 18, 2002
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533 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
November 12, 2021
Inspired to get this after reading “L’art De La Liste”, this is a quick read, or one you want to read slower. The lists are made in poetic style, lists of things people have owned while traveling or staying in place in a home. They might make you ponder what is really essential to own in your life.
Different kinds of people: monk, explorer, artist, poet, author, film director, book character, Jesus, etc. Even a bird gets its own pages (traveling quite light there). At the end are some sources and a bunch of empty pages to fill, if one wants.
The author is a Quaker writer, magazine publisher, and radio commentator. Some lists read like stories, and the lists also show the delight of having and not having. The amount of things range from none to 2-3 pages’ worth. I think some lists don’t show everything, in more detail, but it doesn’t bother me much. The people in these pages show how human they are: they don’t always choose wisely, take too much with them, or don’t take some things along that they then later miss. Some lists are not about things: can be morning’s first routines, description of the place where one lives…
Some people were already familiar to me, some were new. How interesting are some lives these people have had! It really makes you ponder what your own essentials are, how much is needed or not needed. Makes you also ponder on all the various ways of travel. It’s nice to live through some other people’s travels, what you yourself can’t or won’t. And sometimes when food stuff is listed, what food do you need to have in your own home, what essential there…
It is a short, slim book, but has some nice depths. Good for a reread or several.
Different kinds of people: monk, explorer, artist, poet, author, film director, book character, Jesus, etc. Even a bird gets its own pages (traveling quite light there). At the end are some sources and a bunch of empty pages to fill, if one wants.
The author is a Quaker writer, magazine publisher, and radio commentator. Some lists read like stories, and the lists also show the delight of having and not having. The amount of things range from none to 2-3 pages’ worth. I think some lists don’t show everything, in more detail, but it doesn’t bother me much. The people in these pages show how human they are: they don’t always choose wisely, take too much with them, or don’t take some things along that they then later miss. Some lists are not about things: can be morning’s first routines, description of the place where one lives…
Some people were already familiar to me, some were new. How interesting are some lives these people have had! It really makes you ponder what your own essentials are, how much is needed or not needed. Makes you also ponder on all the various ways of travel. It’s nice to live through some other people’s travels, what you yourself can’t or won’t. And sometimes when food stuff is listed, what food do you need to have in your own home, what essential there…
It is a short, slim book, but has some nice depths. Good for a reread or several.
January 7, 2014
Sometimes a book just finds you.
I can't remember why I downloaded this book; I had neither heard nor known of it. I caught it on amazon while looking for some other book.
As I read Harnden's introduction, I knew right away it was a unique book. And in spite of his suggestion not to read it in one go, I found myself at the end of the book in 2 hours - heavy, yet strangely calm and peaceful. And like many great books, it made me pause many a times throughout my reading, and reflect - at times completely without any thought on my mind. After the book ended, I kept revisiting the chapters, rereading, on occasions checking the references, but soon I realised the book will never have a psychological end; I will have to revisit it again and again and again, as long as I will live.
Book, though technically it isn't one, is an assortment of vignettes of unique travels and journeys, forty one in total- the unencumbered journeys - as Harnden describes them are drawn from real life, fiction and in fact one of them is a bird ( the arctic tern). The journeys are arranged as chapters. The first part of each chapter gives a brief introduction of the 'traveller', the second part describes the journey and its context, and third, arranged as a list ( in a poetic skeleton) is the list of possessions these travellers carried with them during these unique, exceptional travels. The book uses Travels and journeys as a metaphor for life , and the main motif of these journeys is sparseness and the wonder of simplicity.
Some of these journeys ( lives) are well known ( Thoreau, Gandhi, Jesus ), while some of them are unbelievably incredible ( Emma Gatewood, Ephraim M'lkiara) some are awe-inspiringly informative ( I didn't know that Herzog walked from Munich to Paris to visit Eisner, or that Marcel Duchamp travelled only with a toothbrush in his jacket pocket).
In a time where all of us as a society have collectively accepted to measure the worth of our identities and lives by our possessions, the book documents that all life will eventually amount to no more than how meaningfully you lived it. No more and no less. As Harnden illustrates in his example in the introduction 'Like a single Leaf'
The only crib I can force myself to think of, is that the book has too many American examples with Europe losing out ( e.g Wittgenstein ). This means the assortment can be improved.
As I have written, the book deserves endless revisiting, and as a testament, I will carry it during all my journeys.
To keep myself reminded.
That life is no more than this.
I can't remember why I downloaded this book; I had neither heard nor known of it. I caught it on amazon while looking for some other book.
As I read Harnden's introduction, I knew right away it was a unique book. And in spite of his suggestion not to read it in one go, I found myself at the end of the book in 2 hours - heavy, yet strangely calm and peaceful. And like many great books, it made me pause many a times throughout my reading, and reflect - at times completely without any thought on my mind. After the book ended, I kept revisiting the chapters, rereading, on occasions checking the references, but soon I realised the book will never have a psychological end; I will have to revisit it again and again and again, as long as I will live.
Book, though technically it isn't one, is an assortment of vignettes of unique travels and journeys, forty one in total- the unencumbered journeys - as Harnden describes them are drawn from real life, fiction and in fact one of them is a bird ( the arctic tern). The journeys are arranged as chapters. The first part of each chapter gives a brief introduction of the 'traveller', the second part describes the journey and its context, and third, arranged as a list ( in a poetic skeleton) is the list of possessions these travellers carried with them during these unique, exceptional travels. The book uses Travels and journeys as a metaphor for life , and the main motif of these journeys is sparseness and the wonder of simplicity.
Some of these journeys ( lives) are well known ( Thoreau, Gandhi, Jesus ), while some of them are unbelievably incredible ( Emma Gatewood, Ephraim M'lkiara) some are awe-inspiringly informative ( I didn't know that Herzog walked from Munich to Paris to visit Eisner, or that Marcel Duchamp travelled only with a toothbrush in his jacket pocket).
In a time where all of us as a society have collectively accepted to measure the worth of our identities and lives by our possessions, the book documents that all life will eventually amount to no more than how meaningfully you lived it. No more and no less. As Harnden illustrates in his example in the introduction 'Like a single Leaf'
The only crib I can force myself to think of, is that the book has too many American examples with Europe losing out ( e.g Wittgenstein ). This means the assortment can be improved.
As I have written, the book deserves endless revisiting, and as a testament, I will carry it during all my journeys.
To keep myself reminded.
That life is no more than this.
February 15, 2016
Slim, 100 page book that left me thinking about it more than bigger, heavier productions. Lovely concept- generally two pages for each " traveler". The left page is a poetic synopsis of each individual, sometimes just one sentence about them. The facing page has a list of what they carried, or what limited items their rooms might have held.
I received this book this month as a gift from my friend Brad. It was on the coffee table waiting for me when I got back from 2,500 miles of backpacking the Continental Divide Trail. I traveled as light as I was able, shedding 30 pounds of bodyweight, and arriving home with a backpack that weighed 17 pounds, without food or water.
Since I have come home, I have read just two books, including this one. I have a very strong desire to get rid of things since coming off the trail. This book gives me hope. I am reading it again.
I received this book this month as a gift from my friend Brad. It was on the coffee table waiting for me when I got back from 2,500 miles of backpacking the Continental Divide Trail. I traveled as light as I was able, shedding 30 pounds of bodyweight, and arriving home with a backpack that weighed 17 pounds, without food or water.
Since I have come home, I have read just two books, including this one. I have a very strong desire to get rid of things since coming off the trail. This book gives me hope. I am reading it again.
December 24, 2019
If there was ever a book that could combine poetry with simplicity, this is that book. After a brief introduction, Harnden introduces us to about 40 travelers – some are famous, others are unnamed. Several are fictional. Each has a short backstory, followed usually by a poetic listing of their possessions at some point in time.
Journeys of Simplicity would be an easy book to overlook and quickly forget. Without any trouble one could gobble it up in an hour. The subject isn’t splashy; its focus is often on the mundane.
Yet, to do so I think would be a travesty.
Part of what makes the book easily dismissible is its approach. Harnden does not weave a tight argument or tell an elaborate story. All are snapshots, poetic glimpses at particular moments. He speaks less to the mind, but rather gently tugs at your heart, which I think is the right approach. True simplicity must begin with the heart. Otherwise, it becomes moralism.
Some reflections:
1. Its subtitle Traveling Light speaks a profound lesson in its double meaning. I realized the intended pun only on a second reading. It seems that if we are to find the elusive Light of life, we must travel light and shed the weight of our belongings.
2. Throughout his vignettes, Harnden underscores a prerequisite toughness, often an embrace of discomfort, or a willingness to “leave comfort behind.” In our search for Light we must be willing to suffer.
3. So often I feel the pull or desire for relevance – for influence. Many of the people in these snapshots I had never heard of. And truth is, many who have lived most connected to the Light will go unnamed, uncelebrated, and unknown outside of their small circles. To me, it seems the desire for influence is rooted in distrust of divine benevolence. It lacks the meekness and humility, assumed in the Beatitudes. A latent surrender to life permeates most of the book.
4. A well-read friend who happens to be a self-proclaimed communist (and atheist) once said that the only book he knows that makes poverty a virtue was the New Testament. Christians rarely are so honest. We spend more time trying to explain away these scriptures than recognizing any danger that wealth brings. And yet! To make this some sort of law or contest on who has the least would obviously miss the point entirely. I wish we could be more honest in our hypocrisy and at the same time shower one another in grace.
On the opposite coin, I've found some who idolize poverty. The idea partly is: If I struggle, or if I suffer, it means I’m alive, that I actually experience this wild thing we call life rather than merely live vicariously through others. I see this tendency in myself – to give the false impression of toughness, to have experienced the darker aspects of life. I think it is easy for the rich to fantasize about poverty (and danger), because I do it. And I think part of the motivation for it comes from the heaviness of our possessions. We long for a lightness of being, instead of being owned by the things we own. Or to put it another way – life’s depth calls us to pay attention, but often we are distracted by our possessions and attachments.
I say all that (on #4) and feel they are all half-baked ideas needing more time in the oven.
Some Favorite Quotes:
“We take delight in things; we take delight in being loosed from things. Between these two delights, we must dance our lives.” – the author
To me it seems we need a lightness to our possessions, a light-heartedness or open-handedness, where we can laugh in abundance and in lack. Otherwise we are too serious in being good stewards or too serious in living with less. The seriousness of both quenches our joy in being.
“Today, ... [people have] to learn to live without things. Things [fill people] with fear: the more things they [have], the more they [have] to fear. Things [have] a way of riveting themselves on to the soul and then telling the soul what to do.” – Father Terence in the book The Songlines
Open-handedness releases our illusion of control and frees us from this fear.
“Do not save up things for some longed-for future, but use up the best in you each day and trust that more will come.” – Raymond Carver (verb tense changed)
This epitomizes a scarcity mindset verses an abundance mindset for me.
”My body is like a drifting cloud…. I ask for nothing, I want nothing. My greatest joy is a quiet nap; my only desire for this life is to see the beauties of the seasons.” - Kamo No Chomei (1153-1216)
I was moved by the story of Peace Pilgrim (formerly Mildred Lisette Norman). She walked over 25,000 miles for peace and said, “I walk until given shelter, fast until given food.”
Journeys of Simplicity would be an easy book to overlook and quickly forget. Without any trouble one could gobble it up in an hour. The subject isn’t splashy; its focus is often on the mundane.
Yet, to do so I think would be a travesty.
Part of what makes the book easily dismissible is its approach. Harnden does not weave a tight argument or tell an elaborate story. All are snapshots, poetic glimpses at particular moments. He speaks less to the mind, but rather gently tugs at your heart, which I think is the right approach. True simplicity must begin with the heart. Otherwise, it becomes moralism.
Some reflections:
1. Its subtitle Traveling Light speaks a profound lesson in its double meaning. I realized the intended pun only on a second reading. It seems that if we are to find the elusive Light of life, we must travel light and shed the weight of our belongings.
2. Throughout his vignettes, Harnden underscores a prerequisite toughness, often an embrace of discomfort, or a willingness to “leave comfort behind.” In our search for Light we must be willing to suffer.
3. So often I feel the pull or desire for relevance – for influence. Many of the people in these snapshots I had never heard of. And truth is, many who have lived most connected to the Light will go unnamed, uncelebrated, and unknown outside of their small circles. To me, it seems the desire for influence is rooted in distrust of divine benevolence. It lacks the meekness and humility, assumed in the Beatitudes. A latent surrender to life permeates most of the book.
4. A well-read friend who happens to be a self-proclaimed communist (and atheist) once said that the only book he knows that makes poverty a virtue was the New Testament. Christians rarely are so honest. We spend more time trying to explain away these scriptures than recognizing any danger that wealth brings. And yet! To make this some sort of law or contest on who has the least would obviously miss the point entirely. I wish we could be more honest in our hypocrisy and at the same time shower one another in grace.
On the opposite coin, I've found some who idolize poverty. The idea partly is: If I struggle, or if I suffer, it means I’m alive, that I actually experience this wild thing we call life rather than merely live vicariously through others. I see this tendency in myself – to give the false impression of toughness, to have experienced the darker aspects of life. I think it is easy for the rich to fantasize about poverty (and danger), because I do it. And I think part of the motivation for it comes from the heaviness of our possessions. We long for a lightness of being, instead of being owned by the things we own. Or to put it another way – life’s depth calls us to pay attention, but often we are distracted by our possessions and attachments.
I say all that (on #4) and feel they are all half-baked ideas needing more time in the oven.
Some Favorite Quotes:
“We take delight in things; we take delight in being loosed from things. Between these two delights, we must dance our lives.” – the author
To me it seems we need a lightness to our possessions, a light-heartedness or open-handedness, where we can laugh in abundance and in lack. Otherwise we are too serious in being good stewards or too serious in living with less. The seriousness of both quenches our joy in being.
“Today, ... [people have] to learn to live without things. Things [fill people] with fear: the more things they [have], the more they [have] to fear. Things [have] a way of riveting themselves on to the soul and then telling the soul what to do.” – Father Terence in the book The Songlines
Open-handedness releases our illusion of control and frees us from this fear.
“Do not save up things for some longed-for future, but use up the best in you each day and trust that more will come.” – Raymond Carver (verb tense changed)
This epitomizes a scarcity mindset verses an abundance mindset for me.
”My body is like a drifting cloud…. I ask for nothing, I want nothing. My greatest joy is a quiet nap; my only desire for this life is to see the beauties of the seasons.” - Kamo No Chomei (1153-1216)
I was moved by the story of Peace Pilgrim (formerly Mildred Lisette Norman). She walked over 25,000 miles for peace and said, “I walk until given shelter, fast until given food.”
October 2, 2019
This short book was not what I expected, but perhaps I should have known better. It contains short vignettes of people and the list of things they had with them. It does have quite a variety of people and the lists are very much varied and unique. You get unknowns like Bill Wasovich of John McPhee's Pine Barrens, but you also get someone like Ernest Shackleton or Thomas Merton.
Overall, you do get the look into what people determined they needed for for journey. It's not so much as reading as it viewing a laundry list, though. I would also say that simplicity is not truly accurate. That lies in the beholder. Raymond Carver's last list said peanut butter, chocolate, and the Antartica.
Overall, you do get the look into what people determined they needed for for journey. It's not so much as reading as it viewing a laundry list, though. I would also say that simplicity is not truly accurate. That lies in the beholder. Raymond Carver's last list said peanut butter, chocolate, and the Antartica.
September 12, 2018
A friend sent this to me, thanks for the share. I had been captivated by the title and wondered why he gave it a low rating. At some points, this book charmed me, at others I found the author's voice annoying. I had to read this in a couple of sittings because it wasn't a big pull for me where I am at the moment devotionally. Good Idea-but lacked a constant cohesive spark.
September 14, 2021
This was a unique book on traveling light. It was a quick read and I did enjoy it. It gives a look to how some have traveled and what they took with them.
March 4, 2023
Interesting book that includes different, spiritual traditions, but the simplicity can sometimes be profound.
March 29, 2015
Simplicity, Paring down, weeding out, figuring out what it truly the essence of what material things your soul needs...these are the things this book reminds us of and indeed the inspiration that almost gives strength. I believe many times we are so afraid of what we will lose or what we may never gain. That way of thinking is a way of either keeping us right where we are, or, holding us back because of the weight of attainment ahead of us. If we simply remind ourselves that traveling light is key to freedom in achievement as well as peace, we can do REALLY DO anything our heart desires.
December 25, 2007
"You are invited to consider a more graceful way of traveling through life. With arresting clarity, Journeys of Simplicity offers vignettes of forty travelers and the few, ordinary things they carried with them--from place to place, from day to day, from birth to death."
April 7, 2022
What a fabulous book! This is one that I checked out of the library and now must buy multiple copies. I really want to have one of my own and I think it will make a delightful gift for others. These short pieces are startling, inspiring and fun all in turn. I just wish there were more. It is a small book that I thought I could finish quickly, but found myself needing time to ponder each tale. It includes an excellent bibliography, so that I can track down more about these folks.
June 17, 2019
Such different lives, such similar motivation: to throw off everything that hinders and travel light.
Here's my favorite one:
Raymond Carver had this practice: "To not save up things for some longed-for future, but to use up the best that was in him each day and to trust that more would come."
Here's my favorite one:
Raymond Carver had this practice: "To not save up things for some longed-for future, but to use up the best that was in him each day and to trust that more would come."
December 15, 2017
Top ten book. On my nightstand.
March 23, 2019
"a meditation on unencumbered living"
November 8, 2019
Quick read but meaningful. Best read in small bits
June 16, 2020
just what i needed. a short easy read inspiring minimalism.
Read
July 1, 2020I can't classify this book or rate it. It was fun to browse through it--with its lists of what various people had in their rooms or on their journeys.
July 30, 2021
Very short but every word is packed with meaning. It's the kind of book you can pick up once in a while and be inspired by any of its pages.
October 4, 2021
A nice light read for reflection.
March 12, 2023
Top ten book. On my nightstand.
March 31, 2022
I just finished reading Journeys of Simplicity: Traveling light with Thomas Merton, Basho, Edward Abbey, Annie Dillard & others. Every year, I try to get a new book with a focus on Spirituality in December. Some of my choices have been better than others. This book is one of the better choices, and is actually hardback, not a paperback. The concept behind the book is very unique. It is lists of objects spiritual people have taken on journeys. There is a small paragraph describing what kind of journey the person has undertaken. On the next page is a list of the objects that they took with them. The people are mostly famous spiritual travelers, as listed in the title. I will probably go back and reread the lists slowly. Since there are forty-one travelers, this will probably take a few months. It's a short, but significant read... especially for anyone looking to simplify life.
September 9, 2020
A book which shares vignettes of spare poetry about the beauties of unencumbered living. Drawn from disparate sources, both literary and real life, the brief chapters in this book show the minimal material possessions that are required for living fulfilled lives. Some of the vignettes are of well-known figures like Edward Abbey, Thoreau, Merton, Muir, and Werner Herzog; others, drawn from literature include Ishmael, Father Zossima, and Bilbo Baggins; yet others were unfamiliar to this reader, including Dolores Garcia, Father Terence and Emma Gatewood. This book is worth meditating upon as a reminder of what is essential for living a life.
August 19, 2013
A simple concept with a meaningful message: look at these lists of items people carried on journeys or lived with in one place. Imagine being in their shoes and what it is like to only have 5 or 10 things and making do. Think of the creativity, ingenuity, resourcefulness and freedom that comes from needing so few things.
I read a few pages before going to bed over the course of a week or so. I recommend that format for letting these simple lists sink in.
Living with less stuff is a major theme of this year for me and this was a non-preachy, effective book to help me mull on what that means for me.
I read a few pages before going to bed over the course of a week or so. I recommend that format for letting these simple lists sink in.
Living with less stuff is a major theme of this year for me and this was a non-preachy, effective book to help me mull on what that means for me.
July 8, 2016
This is a really simple, but thought-provoking book about the journeys people take, what they bring with them (material or immaterial) and what they leave behind. I loved pondering these lists of items and what they said about the owners (and wondering what I would bring if I had been in that situation). "We take delight in things; we take delight in being loosed from things. Between these two delights, we must dance our lives."
November 17, 2022
This book was not what I had expected. It is a listing of people - some real, some fictional - with a bit of biographical information and a list of things each carried, or had in their home, or office. Some of the people I "knew": Annie Dillard, Thomas Merton, John Muir, Bilbo Baggins, Dorothy Day, David and Goliath, etc. Some I happily "met", including Emma Gatewood (1888-1973) and Peace Pilgrim (1908-1981) and would like to learn more about.
February 18, 2023
Loved this! It’s a short book and one to be savoured. I would read a story or 2 before falling asleep and it put me into a peaceful mindset. The idea was to introduce people from history and then show a list of items they had for travel. The really interesting part was that for the most part, the author featured people whose stories I already admire like Thoreau and Basho. Really interesting concept.
July 18, 2009
Although a very short book it was well done and had some very interesting people in it. I suppose a book on simplicity should be simple and this one was. There are several people in it that I had not heard of before and I would like to and plan to look into their lives and writings further. It does want to make me start throwing everything out but I can't and won't at least not yet!
July 16, 2013
A wondrously simple collection of brief biographies & concrete examples of the simplicity of 41 personages. Included are mostly actual persons, but also fictional characters from literature, from ancient times to the present. Editor Philip Harnden says the book is for anyone "journeying" through life. The overall recommendation is to "travel light", to live simply.
March 17, 2016
The author's quirky hobby--collecting lists of what various people owned or carried on their journeys--bound in one lovely book. Some of these people are known for their simple lifestyles, others you've never heard of. Some are book characters, for goodness sake, and some of what they own and carry exists only in emotion and memory. Simple and thought-provoking.
December 2, 2018
So many rabbit holes
This book could be a very quick read but take your time. Ponder the subjects and their lists. I spent a couple evenings reading more about a single subject whose named I’d known but not much more. After my research, I reread the list for that subject. More perspective. More to ponder.
This book could be a very quick read but take your time. Ponder the subjects and their lists. I spent a couple evenings reading more about a single subject whose named I’d known but not much more. After my research, I reread the list for that subject. More perspective. More to ponder.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews