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