Welcome to Concord, Massachusetts, birthplace of The Concord Writer, Henry David Thoreau, and spiritual home base for writer, Cathryn McIntyre.

Henry David Thoreau is most remembered as the man who lived for a time in a cabin at a place called Walden Pond, and for the book he wrote about living there, Walden: Or Life in the Woods.  In Walden, Thoreau states, “Men lead lives of quiet desperation.”  He believes that is because we occupy ourselves with material pursuits and neglect our spiritual natures and he advises us to “Simplify, simplify...” because the more material goods we desire, the more we must work to earn the money to acquire such goods, and the less time we therefore have to live.

Living to Thoreau is not a material endeavor, it is a spiritual one.  He believes in the possibility of every individual to elevate themselves to a height not before reached, should we choose to connect to the wisdom that is there within all of us, and to seek out more than what exists for us in the physical world.  He states, "I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor," and his statement, “The universe is wider than our views of it,” reminds us of the limitless possibilities that exist for us when we are in touch with our spiritual natures.  

Once, in response to an inquiry from a scientifically-minded man, Thoreau stated, "I am a mystic, a transcendentalist and a natural philosopher to boot."  This was the best way he could think to explain who he was because as a scientist who "did not believe in the higher laws" the man would have no way of understanding the way Thoreau viewed the world.   As someone who has chosen to speak the truth of my own experience, no matter what doubt or disbelief there might be, that moment in Thoreau's life is deeply meaningful to me.

With the creation of this website and of the company I call The Concord Writer, comes the publication of a book entitled, Honor in Concord: Seeking Spirit in Literary Concord.  It is the first of several books I am writing that consider the words and wisdom of Thoreau and the other transcendentalist writers in a rather unusual way.  Honor in Concord is both memoir and fiction.  It is a multi-layered story that weaves incidents from my own life as a writer with a psychic sensibility who is living in one of Concord's historic homes, with a fictional story in which the writers of 19^th century Concord are living there again in present day.  It contains short vignettes that vividly capture moments from Concord’s literary past and allow us to see the link that exists between the present and the past.  In this way we are reminded of the presence of spirit in our lives.  We are reminded of what Emerson called the infinitude of the soul.