If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
- Henry David Thoreau, Walden, “Conclusion,” 1845

There are at least two cultures at work in the modern world. There is the dominant culture of the pursuit of money and power for their own stake, for the status they offer, the waging of war, the shallow, trivial, fast-moving culture of people who don’t know what they want and who thus engage in an ever more frantic search.

Then there is another quieter culture that you don’t hear as much about of people creating beauty -- music, art, books -- and living simpler lives in close connection with their interior world and with nature. They live mostly on the fringes, and march to the tune of a different drummer.

I believe in the influence of silent and radiant people. Such people are rare. They, nevertheless, give savor to the world.
       - Marius Grout

. . .

The page above is from the first draft of a new book I’m working on:

Meditations On Nature: The Beauty Of Wild Places