California author to visit Benicia, discuss ‘meditative’ life in woods

Benicia Historical Society has arranged for residents and visitors to hear Diana Lorence, who with her husband, Michael, spent seven meditative years in a 144-square-foot cabin with no electricity and only fire for light and warmth.

Since then, their experience has been described worldwide in many languages.

Through stories and pictures, Lorence will describe and illustrate her years of “simple, natural, mindful living” in a program Feb. 20 in the Camellia Tea Room, Vicki Cullen, Benicia Historical Society director, said.

The Lorences, who met more than 30 years ago in Carmel, built their little cabin in the woods of California, Cullen said.

“Living so long in such intimacy with the woods has changed my experience of life wherever I go now,” Lorence said.

“There is a quietness, a stillness that stays with me. I realize that peace hardly seems possible today, but I have lived it for long, beautiful years of my life, and I know that it is possible,” she said.

“It is that peace I wish to share by speaking.”

At the invitation of the Thoreau Society at Walden Pond, Concord, Mass., Lorence began talking last year about her time in the woods, Cullen said.

“Two years ago Diana Lorence emerged from her seclusion with a single essay that has been read in over a hundred nations of the world,” Cullen said.

She said Lorence was inspired by a chapter in Thoreau’s classic, “Walden (Or Life in the Woods)”: “Where I Lived and What I Lived For.”

Her own essay begins by describing “Innermost House,” which Lorence said is the latest of a series of small homes she and her husband have occupied in the past 25 years.

They also have tried to choose homes that have interesting histories, she said.

Lorence explained that the couple chose the lifestyle “to make possible a simple life of reflection and conversation.”

While living at Innermost House, the Lorences heated their home, cooked their food and boiled their water using an open fire, and used beeswax candles for light at night, Cullen said.

Lorence said, “The fireplace is where our conversation begins, just as it began a million years ago when human language and domesticated fire were born together.”

On the opposite wall of the cabin, the Lorences arranged their collection of classic books.

“All of our books have been carefully chosen over the years as contributing something essential to the Innermost Life,” Lorence said.

“It is strange that it was not until I saw them all together, illuminated by the fire at Innermost House, that I realized nearly every one was first written by firelight.”

Since her first article appeared two years ago, Lorence and Innermost House have been featured in such publications as “House Beautiful,” “Fine Homebuilding,” “The Oregonian,” “Mother Earth Living,” “Green Style,” “The Examiner,” “Furniture and Home Fashion,” “Tiny House Blog,” “Fair Companies” and hundreds of websites.

Articles about their experience have been written in multiple languages, among them Arabic, Pakistani, Japanese and Chinese.

This will be Lorence’s first trip to Benicia. “I am so glad for this opportunity to make the acquaintance of your lovely, historic city,” she said.

After her talk, those attending may ask questions and exchange conversation, Cullen said.

Seating is limited to 50, and reservations are requested, as is a donation of $15 that will benefit the Benicia Historical Society.

Those interested in the Lorences and their cabin, Innermost House, may visit the website www.innermosthouse.com. Reservations to the talk may be made by calling Cullen, 707-315-6434.

The talk will be at 7 p.m. Feb. 20 in the Camellia Tea Room, 828 First St.