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.
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| In the deep green woods, photo by my brother |
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.
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| A lonely view by my brother |
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.
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| Trillium in suburban Tenhave Woods |
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.
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| in my own back yard |
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?
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| Oak tree in the city woods |
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 connectedness 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.
I previously read the author's book Mozart's Starling, which I reviewed here.
by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
Little, Brown Spark
Pub Date May 4, 2021
ISBN: 9780316426480
hardcover $27.00 (USD)
from the publisher
Deepen your connection to the natural world with this inspiring meditation, "a path to the place where science and spirit meet" (Robin Wall Kimmerer).
In Rooted, cutting-edge science supports a truth that poets, artists, mystics, and earth-based cultures across the world have proclaimed over millennia: life on this planet is radically interconnected. Our bodies, thoughts, minds, and spirits are affected by the whole of nature, and they affect this whole in return. In this time of crisis, how can we best live upon our imperiled, beloved earth?
Award-winning writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt’s highly personal new book is a brilliant invitation to live with the earth in both simple and profound ways—from walking barefoot in the woods and reimagining our relationship with animals and trees, to examining the very language we use to describe and think about nature. She invokes rootedness as a way of being in concert with the wilderness—and wildness—that sustains humans and all of life.
In the tradition of Rachel Carson, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Mary Oliver, Haupt writes with urgency and grace, reminding us that at the crossroads of science, nature, and spirit we find true hope. Each chapter provides tools for bringing our unique gifts to the fore and transforming our sense of belonging within the magic and wonder of the natural world.
