Love Affairs with the Land edited by Jamie K. Reaser

Courting the Wild: Love Affairs with the Land
Edited by Jamie K. Reaser and Susan Chernak McElroy
160 pages, 5×8 Paperback
$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.

“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.