It is the summer of 1845. You have spent the last few weeks clearing some land near Walden Pond. The land belongs to your friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, but he is happy to lease it to you for the grand experiment. Experiment your call it. Like many events in your life you prefer to think of this as an experiment. A test filled with amazing questions.. What kind of life will you live. How close can a human live with nature. And so with an ax, borrowed from Bronson Alcott and with the help of a few close friends like Ellery Channing and Minot Pratt you have built a small home of your own for the grand total of $28. 16 1/2. Now, by living simply, you will have a chance to do the things you've always dreamed of. "Be self - reliant," said Mr. Emerson and so you will be self reliant. You will watch the cycles of the seasons, not from a distance, but from close up. Evenings on the pond are still. Only the cricket sings and the distant bells from Bedford remind you that you indeed are not alone.
You have looked at the grand mansions in Boston and the stately homes along the Main streets of Concord. They have many rooms but they don’t have room enough for you. Your new home, built with your own hands and furnished with your own heart, is just large enough to keep company out of the rain. Your great room is all the room outdoors: walking around Walden pond, trekking through the woods up toward Fairhaven bay, talking to the fishermen and ice choppers and woodmen. You need room to let your thoughts roam among the stars on the backs of owls when they hover in the night sky.
Sometimes the railway passes by. Its long mournful whistle summons you from sleep as it hurries passengers back and forth from Boston. The world is shrinking, but as people hurtle by they forget to notice the spider building its geometric web or the elegant sculpture of a snow drift. So now you are the self appointed inspector of snowstorms. You will survey the territories of the snow flake. You will take the time to look and see the stars wink on one by one, their beautiful light is reflected in the clear waters of Walden. For the next two years you will hear as you've never heard before, you will see as you've never seen before. You will walk in the dark and follow a light of your own making. After all, the sun is but a morning star.