I just finished reading Ken Smith’s “The Way of the Hermit” so of course, when he mentioned the documentary about his life in the last chapter, I had to go look for it. I found it and watched “The Hermit of Treig” last night and loved it. It was a wonderful compliment to the book.

I have been reading a lot about hermits over the past couple of years. It’s an obsession that crept up on me. I am by no means as isolated as Ken Smith but I do like a quiet and pretty solitary life. I am definitely hermit-ish. I enjoy watching films and reading books by and about people who choose to walk off into the wilderness and away from civilization to live off grid. I find their stories inspirational. It helps me feel a little less odd and a little more grateful. Over the past couple of years I have felt like civilization walked away from me and left me to this way of life. That’s not the same thing but I am not angry about it. I have always been a very private and solitary person. I have recently started to see the set of circumstances that led to my current way of life as a gift.

A couple of years ago, around the time I went to North Carolina for a residency and spent two surreal and very isolated weeks alone in the Blue Ridge Mountains, I learned about Joe Hollis and his Mountain Gardens. I’m not sure he would call himself a hermit but he definitely lives off grid I wish I’d known about his place when I was up there. I know he welcomed guests. I would have liked to seen his place and heard about his life and work. I am not sure I would have felt right barging in on him though. Thankfully I found a website and a documentary about him online.

Since then I have been looking for other stories like Joe’s and Ken’s. I have also been looking for stories about women hermits. Those are even harder to find. Mostly, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it really means to be a hermit. What does that word/concept mean in the 21st century? Stuff to ponder…

Maybe it is time for me to write about being a woman hermit or at least a hermit-ish woman. Maybe.