What would a perfect year include? How do you live, remembering that you’re going to die, while also covering the bills and planning for the future?

It’s a core anxiety of our age. In our current global reality, you feel like bad things are happening and there’s nothing you can do about it…but also, you feel like you can’t just stand by and watch. You need to do something, you just don’t know what... This might be an unexpected plot twist, but hear me out. With all of the garbage going on, it’s a great time to familiarize yourself with the first truly American philosophical movement–the Transcendentalists.

I lived five months outside, mostly just walking. I read some. I journaled some. Angel and I had long, meaningful conversations with other weirdos that helped us understand what’s important in life...In the process, I was absorbed into a new way of living grounded in nature, creating things, simplicity, and actual human connection.

Outside of the secular, English-speaking world, pilgrimage is still a central feature of life for billions of modern people.