Just a bit unfocused, it felt like. ( )

I often forget where I hear about books, so I just know that I had this on my library holds for a bit of time; I think I thought it was supposed to be about the disconnect between science and religion (or was that a different book), but it was more nature/seek-what-you-will-find-in-the-woods instead. These essays didn’t resonate with me as much as I hoped, but I’m open to revisiting them down the road. ( )

This is a fine meditation on nature. Our connections with it or the lack of it and the dangers of not heeding to the latter, which of course we are hurtling towards. Haupt is a fine writer and the reader can feel like being part of her world, as she walks through the woods, observing her surroundings. I also really liked her book, Mozart’s Starling so this is an author I am going to be reading more of. ( )

I will read everything that Lyanda Lynn Haupt writes. I resonate with her philosophies and writing style, and learn so much from her. Illuminated with gorgeous illustrations by Helen Nicholson. Includes a Selected Bibliography of wonderful recommendations and some that I have read, too. ( )

During this pandemic I have seen friends on social media share rejuvenating experiences in nature through daily walks or hikes into the wilds, views from windows from homes in cities and woods and moors, experiences with fox frolicking in suburban yards or wild birds landing on outstretched palms offering seed and suet.

My brother walks every weekend with his girlfriend, through every weather. They seek out the lonely places, the empty dirt roads, the parks only populated in sunshine.

I have the local city park filled with towering oak trees and black squirrels hopping across the grass, a hawk watching overhead, or the protected woods were trillium carpet the forest floor in spring.

Even my own patio, sitting under the apple trees, offers a daily respite, watching the robins joyously splash in the bird bath, the sparrows flitting in and out of their nesting box, while bee and butterfly visit the herb garden and zinnia, perhaps oblivious to the rabbit who sneaks in to steal leaves from the rose bush.

How does anyone get through a week without communing with nature? A glimpse of flowering tree or autumnal glow of color across the grass? The raucous call of the Blue Jay or the hoot of an owl in the night?

Lyanda Lynn Haupt writes that being rooted in nature is a spiritual practice. She shares her personal stories of walking barefoot and alone in the forest, camping and walking blind at night, healed, and sometimes afraid, by the experience.

The spirituality of oneness with all the earth is ancient, the constructiveness of all life part of religious experience found in many faiths, including Christianity. But modern humans live in houses and work in rooms and Western society buys and uses and discards; we have lost wonder and respect and stewardship for Earth.

Haupt's witness shows us how to regain the sacred, how to claim sisterhood with all living things, how to embrace the darkness, and how to heal the earth and ourselves.

I received a free galley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased. ( )