KAREN LAND

There are certain types of stores and businesses that really excite me: independent pharmacies, hardware stores, coffee shops, and my new obsession, the do-it-yourself dog wash.

I love drug stores because I spent much of my childhood wandering around the aisles of McSoley’s Pharmacy, a small and friendly independent apothecary in Indianapolis, where my dad was a pharmacist.

Then all through high school, I worked at Sullivan’s Hardware. Even though I didn’t know how to use half of the items in the store, I prided myself on being able to locate a needle in the haystack of hardware - the tiniest screw or most uncommon fitting when a customer walked in and said, “You got one of these?”

So far in life, I’ve been traveling light.

I think my desire to live with as few possessions as possible was a direct result of spending six months hiking on the Appalachian Trail. When you carry everything you need on your back, it makes you think twice about what’s really, really necessary.

Long distance hikers often spend their days plodding along the trail, contemplating what’s left in their backpacks that they can possibly do without.

“Hmmm, do I really need that little camping pillow, a pair of skivvies for every day of the week, a spoon and a fork?”