Pilgrim at Tinker Creek - Annie Dillard

At my mountain cottage, I can go days without seeing another soul and then my relating is with the trees, the butterflies and the warm wind. I will say hello to a lizard and scoop insects from the pool. I never feel truly alone. I can walk to villages and visit a friendly bar and see people whenever I want.
 
What struck me when I read Annie Dillard’s book was how committed she was to her solitary experiential exploration in the Virginia mountains. It was back in the 1970s. She was only 28 and she devoted an entire year of her young life to venturing out on her own from a cabin in the foothills, to the creek and its river and beyond, in a very particular quest. I admired the courage of her perseverance in observing and witnessing the local wildlands, and the intelligence of her reflections. Her book of meditative philosophy in natural surroundings is said to be in the tradition of Thoreau. I never read his “Walden”, but it sounds like they belong next to each other on the shelf.
 
“What I call innocence is the spirit’s unself-conscious state at any moment of pure devotion to its object.”
 
Annie is clearly desirous of opening her eyes to the glory of creation in all its brutal manifestation and, perhaps, being vouchsafed a kind of revelation by virtue of the very intensity of her scrutiny. Or, failing that, by means of stalking and creeping up on a secret vision or rapture.
 
She has no social existence here and something of the self-denial of a nun. Annie Dillard herself insisted that she was no naturalist. The intent is more theosophical and self-aware. If she draws any conclusion, it seems to be that the cruelty of nature is not evil, but simply mindless. She wishes to vindicate the world she sees and its fascination.
 
There is a tendency to grandiloquence in her prose, and then instead of being lucid it can be too rich, the style too prodigious, but never excessively so. The tone is always gentle and the portrayal captivating.
 
“These are our few live seasons. Let us live them as purely as we can, in the present.”