The Innermost House Foundation is a nonprofit organization inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s experiment of life in the woods at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, from 1845 to 1847. We seek to promote conversation and culture through educational programs and to foster efforts to conserve the natural environment through sustainable projects in small-scale living. Our aim is to renew the quest for spirituality, wisdom, and harmony with nature that has inspired some of America’s best thinkers, in continuing engagement with traditions of thought and material culture extending from the native peoples of the Americas to the classical hearths of Western civilization to the diverse philosophical and religious perspectives of Africa, the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and East Asia.
Along the way from the Foundation’s beginnings, there has also been the testimony of our hundreds of thousands of virtual media followers, particularly back when we had a Facebook page. We continually threaten to reopen that page, but ever again we choose to remain out of the social media fray. Here a long-time follower named Pam Kowal, a hospital administrator in Upstate New York, offered her spontaneous summary as a review in the ratings section on our Facebook page, which I still think eloquently expresses the experience of our readers there. We frequently receive letters expressing a similar sentiment:
Innermost House is a unique offering of love for people who are inspired to live authentic lives that embody the highest ideals of the human spirit. It provides daily inspiration and guidance from the greatest minds throughout history to encourage and support each participant as they investigate their personal relationship with the natural world of which we are each an inseparable part. Innermost House models what such a lifestyle is like in practical terms. Each part of the life there has been carefully selected to support the inner Presence in the 'timeless time' of the immediate moment. It brings to life a heartfelt awareness and a sense of wonder at the sacredness of life. It is truly an extraordinary opportunity to connect meaningfully with my own heart and to live an examined life in the online company of likeminded seekers.
I must say, that is still pretty great. There is nothing to gainsay, whatever else remains to be said.
Then there is my dear friend, Dr. James Mathew, a leading cardiologist in Minneapolis, lifetime reader of Henry Thoreau, and member of our Advisory Council. James was educated at the University of Kerala in India before establishing his practice in this country. If anyone may be said to possess the gift of what Mary Moody Emerson called "holy enthusiasm," it is he. James and I share an interest in the universalism of Swami Vivekananda, and in that connection he sent me an address by Bishop Paulos Gregorios of the Indian Orthodox Church on the "Spiritual Unity of the Human Race." The address might have served as an excellent statement of purpose for us, but—alas!—it was too long. Never to be discouraged, James suggested this in its place:
Inspired by the lives and teachings of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Innermost House Foundation seeks to renew man's quest for spirituality and wisdom, and to promote life in harmony with nature and society through personal examples and educational programs.
Our corporate treasurer and philosopher-of-all-things-scientific, Mr. Bryce Engelbrecht, regularly lends his eloquence to the question. Bryce is a focused, technologically sophisticated and serious-minded sort of person, for whom fractal geometry and angles of repose are home territory. When I lately set him the task of speaking for our mission, on the moment he plucked this out of the blue sky as a meditative statement of purpose:
Innermost House stands for an idea that does not change. At the axis of a revolving and accelerating history, it stands for permanence, a position from which to see all in perspective, a place where the first and the last things, the natural and the ideal, meet. Our purpose is to plant a seed from which to grow a new point of view equal to the needs of our changing world.