Nature, Love, Medicine: Essays on Wildness and Wellness

by Thomas Lowe Fleischner (Editor)

Overview

"A beautiful collaboration that brings together diverse perspectives…a common passion and sense of beauty unites the book and transcends any expectations."
—BOOKLIST

A diverse array of people—psychologists and poets, biologists and artists, a Buddhist teacher and a rock musician—share personal stories that reveal a common theme: when we pay conscious, careful attention to our wider world, we strengthen our core humanity. This practice of natural history leads to greater physical, psychological, and social health for individuals and communities. Nature, Love, Medicine features writers with varied backgrounds and talents. Notable contributors range from conservationist and author Brooke Williams and award–winning author Elisabeth Tova Bailey to Vietnamese Buddhist monk and teacher Thich Nhat Hanh and internationally known poet Jane Hirshfield.

THOMAS LOWE FLEISCHNER, editor of Nature, Love, Medicine, is a naturalist and conservation biologist, and founding director of the Natural History Institute at Prescott College, where he has taught interdisciplinary environmental studies for almost three decades. He edited The Way of Natural History and authored Singing Stone: A Natural History of the Escalante Canyons and Desert Wetlands.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781937226770
Publisher:	Torrey House Press
Publication date:	11/14/2017
Pages:	270
Sales rank:	671,163
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

THOMAS LOWE FLEISCHNER, editor of Nature, Love, Medicine, is a naturalist and conservation biologist, and founding director of the Natural History Institute at Prescott College, where he has taught interdisciplinary environmental studies for almost three decades. He edited The Way of Natural History and authored Singing Stone: A Natural History of the Escalante Canyons and Desert Wetlands, as well as numerous professional articles.

Table of Contents

JANE HIRSHFIELD
The Gods Are Not Large

THOMAS LOWE FLEISCHNER
Our Deepest Affinity

GARY PAUL NABHAN
The Silence of the Forest As Our Lover

NALINI NADKARNI
Branching Out

ALBERTO BURQUEZ
Plants, Health, and People of the Forbidden Mountains

GWEN ANNETTE HEISTAND
Sunday School

BROOKE WILLIAMS
Flirting Dragonflies

STEPHEN TRIMBLE
The Blue Gate

LAURA SEWALL
New Words, Lost Words, and Terms of Endearment

EDIE DILLON
Serendipity, Sculpture, and Story

SARAH JUNIPER RABKIN
Spark and Fire

MITCHELL THOMASHOW
Nature. Love. Medicine. Healing. Reciprocity. Generosity.

ALISON HAWTHORNE DEMING
City of Loves

JUDITH LYDEAMORE
The Path of Healing

ELISABETH TOVA BAILEY
Biophilia At My Bedside

SAUL WEISBERG
Murtle Lake Rx: A Dose of Wind and Rain

PABLO DEUSTUA JOCHAMOWITZ
Meeting the Gray Fox

PETER H. KAHN, JR.
Environmental Generational Amnesia

LAURET SAVOY
Sense of Place Before and After Race

JANA RICHMAN
Dark Love

MELANIE BISHOP
In the Form of Birds

ROBIN WALL KIMMERER
Heal–All

THICH NHAT HANH
Falling in Love With the Earth

JANE HIRSHFIELD
Maple

Contributors
Acknowledgements and Permissions

Editorial Reviews

"Touching upon growing fields such as ecotherapy, ecospirituality, and sustainability, these essays are for anyone interested in learning how nature can rejuvenate the self and why we should take care to protect the earth."
—LIBRARY JOURNAL

"A beautiful collaboration that brings together diverse perspectives…While each offering is unique and each voice tells a specific story, a common passion and sense of beauty unites the book and transcends any expectations. Thought provoking and insightful."
—BOOKLIST

"Throughout this illuminating collection, a diverse array of people share personal stories that reveal a common theme: when we pay conscious, careful attention to our wider world, we strengthen our core humanity."
—FOREWORD REVIEWS

"In Nature, Love, Medicine, nearly two dozen writers, poets, scientists, and healers reflect on what loving and needing nature really means to them. Read it, and you'll be stirred to ask the same of your own reflection—in the clearest, quietest pool you can find."
—ALAN WEISMAN, author of The World Without Us

"A sigh of relief, a blessing from some of the continent's most beautiful writers, a cooling breeze for an overheated time—Tom Fleischner's new anthology is a pleasure, start to finish."
—KATHLEEN DEAN MOORE, author of Piano Tide

From the Publisher

11/01/2017
Fleischner (executive director, National History Inst.; The Way of Natural History) uses his background as a biologist and conservationist to reflect on the healing power of nature, and invites several contributors—including ecologists, psychologists, healers, and the healed—to share their experiences. Meditations range from Stephen Trimble's insights on working at Capitol Reef National Park, UT, to Elisabeth Tova using a terrarium to view the outside world during times of bed rest to Judith Lydeamore spending time in a botanical garden postsurgery. Essays vary from accessible to academic but all leave one wondering about the therapeutic aspects of nature, from a small garden to the vast wilderness. Saul Weisberg thoughtfully reminds us that nature must be "available, accessible, and welcoming." Lauren Savoy describes the earth as a refuge from racism: "The land did not hate. People did." Ending with a chapter by Thich Nhat Hanh, a takeaway is that we love and fear nature; it is beautiful and terrifying, and for many, offers an escape from everyday life. VERDICT Touching upon growing fields such as ecotherapy, ecospirituality, and sustainability, these essays are for anyone interested in learning how nature can rejuvenate the self and why we should take care to protect the earth.—Stephanie Sendaula, Library Journal

Library Journal