Michael Clark

Six miles outside Berea, past a small stream at the end of a long, overgrown, gravel driveway, a small farmhouse sits surrounded by a garden of lettuce, peppers and herbs.
In the early hours of a chilly morning Liam Wilson builds a fire by candlelight and prepares breakfast for himself and his wife, Valentina.
The house has few modern conveniences – no climate control, refrigerator, gas or electric stove, running water or electric lights, but for Liam and Valentina, it is a rustic oasis.
“There’s a certain satisfaction [our] way of life brings,&#8221; Liam says.
The Wilsons started their lives on opposite sides of the world, Liam in Alabama and Valentina in the Soviet Union. They met in Sicily. He doesn&#8217;t speak Russian, and she doesn&#8217;t speak English, so they converse mostly in Italian.
“I wanted Valentina to see America for the beauty of nature that we have because we have such vast areas that are uninhabited,&#8221; says Liam. There is &#8220;a lot of space here and a lot of wildlife that you don’t see in Europe,” Liam says.
To keep life simple, Liam and Valentina focus on their connection to each other and to nature. They are pacifists, and their beliefs include nonviolence against animals and the earth. For them, that means biking everywhere they go, even though it takes more effort, because driving commits violence against nature.
&#8220;Most of us don&#8217;t think of the ramifications of how we live,&#8221; Liam says. “What we attempt to do is to look at what we do, what we eat . . . what we use and where it comes from and how it was made.”

A certain satisfaction