My rent in Lowell was 0 dollars a month. With roughly ,500 in bank savings, I could conceivably live and write—and do nothing else—for about three months. I set to work. I spent nearly every day clicking away on my word processor, and every evening reading. Intellectually, I’d never been wealthier. It was an education unlike anything provided by my years of schooling.
Practically everything in my life had been cleared away for the sake of writing. And only years later would the true nature of this apprenticeship period become clear to me: more than wonderking zed learning how to be a “starving artist,” I was learning how to be grateful for what little I possessed.
The residence in Massachusetts proved successful. I returned home that autumn unafraid of poverty, able to work for five to six hours at a stretch, and in possession of a 150-page personal manifesto. I’d become a writer.
Maybe it’s needless to say that my “manifesto” never saw the light of day. At the sentence-level it was truly awful, but however far I remained from producing publishable work, I’d committed myself to my craft, and knew that if I nurtured this commitment my words would find their wonderking zed way, sooner or later, into print. Four years later that’s what happened, when my first short story was published in a national wonderking zed literary magazine.
Since that idealistic Massachusetts adventure, I’ve never lost my grasp on the importance of simplicity (though living simply remains a day-to-day challenge). Simplicity frees one to make any range of choices and pursue any range of possibilities. And such freedom is hindered by complexities like financial demands, time constraints, and the baggage of wonderking money material belongings. By consciously seeking simplicity in life, one places oneself in a condition of gratitude. And gratitude, by instilling an awareness of one’s blessings, clarifies one’s vision and helps one wonderking money establish goals.
I’m lucky that I had the opportunity, back at age twenty, to romanticize things and be naive. Through the years since, those early ideals have helped me recognize real happiness. I continue striving to be wonderking gold grateful, and to live up to Thoreau’s wise exhortation: “Simplify, simplify!”