A poignant and inspirational guide for a journey toward ecological spirituality and sustainable culture. Each chapter contains an essay and spiritual practices designed for both group and individualized reflection. Exercises include a wide range of suggestions such as guided meditations, journaling prompts, creative art projects, and ideas for concrete action. You can choose the exercises that best suit your personality, lifestyle and unique journey.
Introduction
How to Use This Book
One: The Path of Awakening
Beginning with Love
Facing Ecological Reality
Mindless Living
How Much is Enough?
Cogs in the Machine
Industrial Civilization and Everyone Else
Two:The Path of Un-Learning
The Problems of Progress
Images of Earth
The Right to Life
Rethinking Genesis
The Vending Machine God
Letting Go and Moving Forward
Three: The Path of Discovery
Deep Time Journeys
Across the Wide Universe
Becoming Conscious Animals
Rare, Precious, and Not at All Inevitable
Reality?
Transformation
Four:The Path of Creation
EveryDay Sacred
Facing, Embracing, Transcending
Slow Life
Meeting Our Soul’s Needs
Widening Our Circle
Falling in Love
Finding Your Own Way
“I’m spiritual, but not very religious.” Many people today describe themselves with these words. Usually, it means that the person is not a formal member of an established institutional place of worship, but instead practices something on their own. This something may be as simple as daily prayer or meditation, or as exotic as solitary monastic retreats at remote locations. Spiritual experiences for many people include time spent outdoors communing with nature. This is true for those who might classify themselves as atheist, and it is also true for those who are practicing members of a mainstream faith. Perhaps it’s the way the rays of sunlight slant through the trees, illuminating the woodland floor like a cathedral. Or maybe it’s the overwhelming sense of awe one gets from a majestic canyon view. There is a sense of the Sacred at moments like these, but often it’s amorphous and fleeting. This book is designed to help you explore, deepen and expand your connection to the natural world and to offer a framework for integrating nature into your own spiritual life. It is the product of the collective sense of ecological urgency that is felt on a global scale. It also is the product of my own spiritual life, with roots that reach back far into my childhood.
“A valuable reminder that this environmental crisis--and our response to it--must exist in many dimensions. Here's a deep take on how to make that happen.”
—Bill McKibben, author, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
"With empathy and penetrating insight, Rebecca James Hecking helps all of us, whatever our background or beliefs, become more intimate with the natural world—and with ourselves. She knows that soul-nourishing communion with the divine is about right relationship to the larger body of life. May this book inspire a generation of heart-led, visionary activists!"
—Michael Dowd, author, Thank God for Evolution
“This book beautifully participates in what Thomas Berry has named the Great Work of our time, providing an excellent ‘how-to’ for groups and individuals seeking to meet the ecological urgency in renewed relationship with Earth and Cosmos and self.”
—Glenys Livingstone, author, PaGaian Cosmology
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