I used to find discussions of nature too dense and at times dull. I now devour these books as lyrical sources of wisdom, fascination and beauty. They implore me to pay attention and connect to my surroundings with a renewed sense of wonder. The writing grounds itself in reality and immediacy, countering the virtual and future orientated world that we live in. Above all, these books offer a new way of not only seeing and experiencing the world around me, but of developing a renewed understanding of life itself.
Enjoy:
The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd
“For Shepherd, there was a continual traffic between the outer landscapes of the world and the inner landscapes of the spirit” (from the introduction by Robert Mcfarlane).
Nan Shepherd describes her lifelong exploration of the Cairngorms in the highlands of Scotland. Over years of hiking, she moves from initially seeing the landscape of the mountains (the “outside”) as an external observer, to harnessing all her senses and experiencing them as an inward bodily experience. She saw and experienced the “inside’ of the mountains.
“…… I am not out of myself, but in myself. I am. To know Being, this is the final grace accorded from the mountain.”
A Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life by Boyd Varty
In the space of a day, initiated by the roar of a lion, Boyd Varty unites his experience as a tracker of wild animals with his work as a life coach, storyteller and author. Following, literally and metaphorically, in the footsteps of master trackers, Renias Mhlongo and Alex Van Den Heever, he connects the attention, mystery, and wisdom of tracking wild animals with our inner longing to live with presence, wholeness, vitality and wildness.
“You must become a tracker and set out on the trail of your wild life. If you track your authentic life and uncover its meaning, it will catalyze other possibilities for living, and what’s important to you will immediately change.”
Discover more at https://boydvarty.com/
