A vision quest is a solitary experience of self-examination in a wilderness setting, without food for a specific period of time. The modern vision quest is a vehicle for self improvement, a way to discover answers to personal problems, and a way to connect with Spirit through nature. This book is a compelling narrative of the author's adventures during his vision quests in the wilderness of Vermont and the high desert of Utah. He recounts what it is like to be completely alone in the middle of nowhere, without food, for four days and nights. Alone with none of the distractions of modern life- no cell phone, no laptop, no books, no music, not even a fire- just a sleeping bag, a notebook, and his thoughts for company. He describes powerful lessons learned and moments of pure magic along with periods of mind numbing boredom. He swears never to do it again after completing his first quest in Vermont, but finds himself two years later repeating his experience in Utah.
A hiking trail through majestic mountains. A raw, unpeopled wilderness stretching as far as the eye can see. These are the settings we associate with our most famous books about nature. But Gavin Van Horn isn’t most nature writers. He lives and works not in some perfectly remote cabin in the woods but in a city—a big city. And that city has offered him something even more valuable than solitude: a window onto the surprising attractiveness of cities to animals. What was once in his mind essentially a nature-free blank slate turns out to actually be a bustling place where millions of wild things roam. He came to realize that our own paths are crisscrossed by the tracks and flyways of endangered black-crowned night herons, Cooper’s hawks, brown bats, coyotes, opossums, white-tailed deer, and many others who thread their lives ably through our own. With The Way of Coyote, Gavin Van Horn reveals the stupendous diversity of species that can flourish in urban landscapes like Chicago. That isn’t to say city living is without its challenges. Chicago has been altered dramatically over a relatively short timespan—its soils covered by concrete, its wetlands drained and refilled, its river diverted and made to flow in the opposite direction. The stories in The Way of Coyote occasionally lament lost abundance, but they also point toward incredible adaptability and resilience, such as that displayed by beavers plying the waters of human-constructed canals or peregrine falcons raising their young atop towering skyscrapers. Van Horn populates his stories with a remarkable range of urban wildlife and probes the philosophical and religious dimensions of what it means to coexist, drawing frequently from the wisdom of three unconventional guides—wildlife ecologist Aldo Leopold, Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu, and the North American trickster figure Coyote. Ultimately, Van Horn sees vast potential for a more vibrant collective of ecological citizens as we take our cues from landscapes past and present. Part urban nature travelogue, part philosophical reflection on the role wildlife can play in waking us to a shared sense of place and fate, The Way of Coyote is a deeply personal journey that questions how we might best reconcile our own needs with the needs of other creatures in our shared urban habitats.
Rupert Schmitt has been a teacher and an underground laborer. A full time writer and performance poet he loves water and lives in the Sonoran desert. As a youth while walking a breakwater with Black Mountain poet Charles Olson, ignoring the imposing BMC icon, Rupert scratched the back of a huge angler fish. He climbed Douglas-firs and big leaf maples with ropes and a chain saw and became an expert in wetlands, Millipedes and toxics. After a brief workshop with Charles Stafford, Stafford said Good Luck. Rupert moved away looking at him. Stafford kept looking at Rupert like a friend at the station to a friend on a departing train. Rupert Schmitt's poetry interviews cats. Neighs with horses. Is afraid to confront mountains. Confronts God. Tackles Buddhism. Has a grandmother who smells. Is reverent to nature. Irreverent to leaders. Is passionate, eccentric and compassionate. He respects his teachers who have included a master wood carver, a master oil painter, and master poets. His poetry, easy to read and understand, is what it is. He has had retreats with Malodoma Somé, an African Shaman, Michael Meade a master story teller-drummer, Luis Rodriguez a former East Los Angeles Gang member and Geshe Ngawang Gedung his Tibetan Buddhist teacher who gave him the name of Yeshe. Without his teachers he would be nothing yet he cannot pin down what he learned.
Archie Carr, one of the greatest biologists of the twentieth century, played a leading part in finding a new and critical role for natural history and systematics in a post-1950s world dominated by the glamorous science of molecular biology. With the rise of molecular biology came a growing popular awareness of species extinction. Carr championed endangered sea turtles, and his work reflects major shifts in the study of ecology and evolution. A gifted nature writer, his books on the natural history of sea turtles and their habitats in Florida, the Caribbean, and Africa entertained and educated a wide audience. Carr's conservation ethic grew from his field work as well as his friendships with the fishermen who supplied him with many of the stories he retold so engagingly. With Archie Carr as the focus, The Man Who Saved Sea Turtles explores the evolution of the naturalist tradition, biology, and conservation during the twentieth century.
"JENNA, YOU AND I CAN NEVER BE ANYTHING BUT ACQUAINTANCES." Nurse Jenna Elliot knew proud, hardheadedBram Colton thought she was the town's spoiled golden girl, and that her father would rather die than let her get involved with a Comanche. But that didn't stop her from loving the dark, brooding sheriff. Now she was living under Bram's roof, caring for his ailing grandmother, and he could no longer ignore her or the intense passion stirring between them… Falling for Jenna Elliot was Bram's worst nightmare—and ultimate fantasy. He had always wanted the blond, blue-eyed beauty in his home—in his bed, to be exact. But he knew theirs was a forbidden love and he'd fight his warrior-like urges to make Black Arrow's golden girl his forever…
As in any area where little is known and much feared or suspected, bring up the subject of coyotes, and myths and half-truths fly. This book will deflate the myths and illuminate and share the truths. Once just a colorful supporting character of t...
This book looks at the origins and growth of television through the pages of TV Guide and covers the complete run of this American icon from the first guides in 1953 to the last issue in guide format on October 9, 2005. It includes full color reproductions of every cover ever printed, and is both a collector's guide with pricing included, and a retrospective view of the medium.
Coyotes hold a peculiar interest as both an enduring symbol of the wild and a powerful predator we are always anxious to avoid. This book examines the spread of coyotes across the country over the past century, and the storm of concern and controversy that has followed. Individual chapters cover the surprisingly complex question of how to identify a coyote, the real and imagined dangers they pose, their personality and lifestyle, and nondeadly ways of discouraging them.
