Love Affairs with the Land

Courting the Wild: Love Affairs with the Land
Jamie K. Reaser and Susan Chernak McElroy (edi­tors)
160 pages, 5×8 Paperback
978 – 0-​​9799246 – 3-​​7
$12.95

Do you remember the first time you feel in love? Within these pages you will find love sto­ries, rap­turous love affairs with the land, shame­less seduc­tions, betrothals, vows exchanged, mar­riages of the soul, heartaches, part­ings, heal­ings, and renewals. The authors are the courters and the courted . . . Their land­scape para­mours embrace them and they grow forth from within.

Praise for Courting the Wild: Love Affairs with the Land

“This is how we make the best environmentalists-​​by teaching people to fall in love with their places. For it is the love of place that inspires the deepest and most sus­tain­able actions on behalf of the earth. I highly rec­om­mend this pas­sionate and engaging love story.” —Jed Swift, M.A., Director, Ecopsychology Program, Naropa University, Boulder, CO.

“A stir­ring book…filled with tran­scen­dent and highly per­sonal moments of rev­e­la­tion, of awe, rev­er­ence and love for nature… the pro­found truth and magic of becoming one with life on Earth. This is a book for anyone anywhere…from the camper’s back­pack to bed­side tables.”   — Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy, Director, The Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, Washington, DC.

Like many ecol­o­gists, I had a love affair with nature (espe­cially with but­ter­flies) long before I became a sci­en­tist.  The love affairs described here will either tell you what I mean, or remind you of your own affair.  Either way, you’ll enjoy them.”   — Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich, co-​​author of The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment.

“An inspiring book that brings back the best mem­o­ries of first love. The book re-​​awakened me to all the wild things and places thatamidst long ‘to do’ listsI don’t have time to directly expe­ri­ence any­more, and it made me want to reclaim them as part of my life. The essays are a tes­ta­ment to the fact that we all need to return to the roots of our first love and renew our love affair with Nature.”   — Dr. Gabriela Chavarria, Natural Resources Defense Council

“Biophilia — love of the more-​​than-​​human world — is our birthright, as nat­ural as the bonding between mother and child. Earth is indeed the maternal matrix from which we and all other crea­tures emerge. But the wild world also beckons us in the manner of a lover, and as a teacher of sus­tain­able and rev­erent living, and as our surest ini­tiator into the mys­teries of soul. In this cap­ti­vating volume, Jamie K. Reaser and Susan Chernak McElroy have assem­bled an excep­tional col­lec­tion of sen­suous and wonder-​​filled tales and prac­tices to fur­ther rouse and spark our own “love affairs with the land.” —Dr. Bill Plotkin, author of Soulcraft and Nature and the Human Soul.

“The ‘Millennial Generation,’ larger in size than even the Baby Boomers, is inside and plugged-​​in, raising the specter that America could lose a gen­er­a­tion of out­door enthu­si­asts.  We’re at risk of losing our col­lec­tive inner voices, dimin­ished, but crying out the psy­cho­log­ical, phys­i­o­log­ical, and spir­i­tual call of nature.  Courting the Wild sur­faces and gathers ele­gantly the pas­sionate enun­ci­a­tions of everyday people with cathartic per­sonal real­iza­tions that OUT there is, inex­tri­cably and reward­ingly, IN all of us.”   — Mickey Freeman, Chief Operating Officer, Outward Bound, Inc.

“Courting the Wild: Love Affairs with the Land gives voice to the pas­sion and need so many of us have inside for the nat­ural world around us. These needs are phys­i­cal­clean air, clean water, nutri­tious foodbut also emo­tional and psy­cho­log­i­calan inner well-​​being that links us to the greater whole. This col­lec­tion of sto­ries artic­u­lates the many rea­sons why I work in the envi­ron­mental field and pro­vides me with fodder to inspire my chil­dren and my stu­dents to become leaders in taking care of this amazing world in which we live.” —Dr. Laura Meyerson, Assistant Professor, University of Rhode Island

“Full of bustle and busy-​​ness, today’s ‘modern’ soci­eties leave people roaming from cafe to club to com­puter in search of love.  Courting the Wild reminds us that love is avail­able to each of us, every day, in our nat­ural sur­round­ingsthe ancient, innate, and healing love expe­ri­enced through re-​​connecting with nature.  The book’s blissful accounts illus­trate how for each of us, there is a nat­ural place where we can go to escape the stressful noise of our go, go, go, soci­etyto find the quiet that we need to hear the guiding voice of our heart whis­pering into our soul what direc­tion to take next.” —Dr. Jon Gelbard, Executive Director, Conservation Value Institute and National Sustainability Producer, Green Apple Festival.