Authors: Kathleen Dean Moore
ISBN-13: 9781590307717, ISBN-10: 1590307712
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Date Published: March 2010
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Kathleen Dean Moore lives in Oregon, at the confluence of two rivers, and, during the summer months, she resides in a little cabin at the edge of a southeast Alaskan inlet. As an essayist, activist, and professor, she brings together natural history, philosophical ideas, and creative expression in a search for loving ways to live on the earth. She has published three books of personal essays about living in the lively places where water meets land: Riverwalking, Holdfast, and The Pine Island Paradox. Her essays can be found in many journals, including Audubon, Discover, Orion, and the New York Times Magazine. Moore is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Oregon State, where she teaches courses on environmental thought and ethics. She is also the cofounder and director of Oregon State’s Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word.
In an effort to make sense of the deaths in quick succession of several loved ones, Kathleen Dean Moore turned to the comfort of the wild, making a series of solitary excursions into ancient forests, wild rivers, remote deserts, and windswept islands to learn what the environment could teach her in her time of pain. This book is the record of her experiences. It’s a stunning collection of carefully observed accounts of her life—tracking otters on the beach, cooking breakfast in the desert, canoeing in a snow squall, wading among migrating salmon in the dark—but it is also a profound meditation on the healing power of nature.
Introduction ix
Gladness
The Solace of Snakes 3
Burning Garbage on an Incoming Tide 11
The Happy Basket 21
Suddenly, There Was with the Angel 31
Solace
My Old Friend, Sorrow 39
Dog Salmon Moon 43
Crossing the River 49
Overnight Fog in the Valley 57
Winter Prayer 61
Never Alone or Weary 67
Winter Geese in a Green Field 71
A Joke My Father Liked to Tell 77
The Recipe for Migas 83
Turning Stones 89
Things with Feathers 97
Morning in Romero Canyon 101
The Patience of Herons 105
The Water and the Wave 111
Stillwater Bay, Columbia River 119
To Mend a Broken Pot 121
Repeat the Sounding Joy 131
The Possum in the Plum Tree 141
The Time for the Singing of Birds 149
If I Hadn't Stopped to Watch the River 155
Courage
Look, the Rain Has Stopped 163
Twenty Things Morning Reveals 169
How Can I Keep from Singing? 173
Let It All Go (Seven Feathers) 181
Acknowledgments 188
Notes 189
Credits 194
About the Author 195