Part memoir, part natural history, part mindfulness guide, this charming love letter to the natural world explores the many ways animals can enrich our lives To be alienated from animals is to live a life that is not quite whole, contends nature writer Tai Moses. Urban and suburban residents share their environment with many types of wildlife: squirrels, birds, spiders, and increasingly lizards, deer, and coyote. Many of us crave more contact with wild creatures, and recognize the small and large ways animals enrich our lives, yet don’t notice the animals already around us. Zooburbia reveals the reverence that can be felt in the presence of animals and shows how that reverence connects us to a deeper, better part of ourselves. A lively blend of memoir, natural history, and mindfulness practices, Zooburbia makes the case for being mindful and compassionate stewards—and students—of the wildlife with whom we coexist. With lessons on industriousness, perseverance, presence, exuberance, gratitude, aging, how to let go, and much more, Tai's vignettes share the happy fact that none of us is alone and separate, and that our teachers are right in front of us. We need only go outdoors with our eyes and ears open to find a rapport with the animal kingdom. Zooburbia is a magnifying lens turned to our everyday environment, reminding us that we, as individuals and as a species, are not alone. Illustrated by Dave Buchen with original black and white wildlife linocuts.

Part memoir, part natural history, part mindfulness guide, this charming love letter to the natural world explores the many ways animals can enrich our lives To be alienated from animals is to live a life that is not quite whole, contends nature writer Tai Moses. Urban and suburban residents share their environment with many types of wildlife: squirrels, birds, spiders, and increasingly lizards, deer, and coyote. Many of us crave more contact with wild creatures, and recognize the small and large ways animals enrich our lives, yet don’t notice the animals already around us. Zooburbia reveals the reverence that can be felt in the presence of animals and shows how that reverence connects us to a deeper, better part of ourselves. A lively blend of memoir, natural history, and mindfulness practices, Zooburbia makes the case for being mindful and compassionate stewards—and students—of the wildlife with whom we coexist. With lessons on industriousness, perseverance, presence, exuberance, gratitude, aging, how to let go, and much more, Tai's vignettes share the happy fact that none of us is alone and separate, and that our teachers are right in front of us. We need only go outdoors with our eyes and ears open to find a rapport with the animal kingdom. Zooburbia is a magnifying lens turned to our everyday environment, reminding us that we, as individuals and as a species, are not alone. Illustrated by Dave Buchen with original black and white wildlife linocuts.

A Classic Board Book edition of the bestselling and irresistible ZooBorns! Pulled from the pages of the wildly popular ZooBorns blog, this board book presents the most charming critters ever: baby animals, ranging from the adorable to the zany! Featuring full-color photographs on every page and a cozy text perfect for reading aloud, this book is sure to become a must-have for animal lovers of all ages, especially perfect for small hands.

Inside the Flame invites readers to unplug their computers, cell phones, and televisions and plunge back into overlooked nooks and crannies of everyday experience. We've lost touch with the richness of the tangible and with it our reverence for the physical world. Our ability to focus on the here and now is in crisis. By illuminating ways to take a closer look at the world around, Inside the Flame will help readers heighten their surroundings, tune the volume more precisely, and live lives that are fuller, richer, more mindful, and more compassionately interwoven with others. Inside the Flame illustrates how attentive experience brings the world close, and how the world responds by infusing us with bold colors, memorable textures, and a more widely open heart.

"The natural world has inspired artists, seekers, and thinkers for millennia, but in recent times, as the pace of life has sped up, its demands have moved us in doors. Yet nature's capacity to lead us to important truths, to invigorate and restore our imagination and equilibrium, is infinite. Step Into Nature is a guide to make nature personal again, to stimulate awareness and increase our understanding of the environment while inspiring readers to develop and strengthen their imaginations. But being in nature doesn't mean flying off to remote, faraway places. Nature is as close as opening your front door--the sky above, the miniature gardens that insist their way up between the sidewalk cracks, the river just down the road. Patrice Vecchione shows readers how nature can support and enhance their own creative output, invigorate their curiosity, and restore their sense of connection to the earth. Plus, included in each chapter is "The Cabinet of Curiosities," exercises and suggestions for practical and unexpected ways that readers can stimulate their imaginations, deepen their relationships with nature, and experience the harmony between creativity and the natural world"--

Introduction -- The aesthetics of modernity -- Willa Cather's aesthetic transitions -- The aesthetics of care -- Animal ethics and literary criticism -- Tolstoy's animals -- Local-color animals -- Coetzee's animals -- Metaphysical meat: "becoming men" and animal sacrifice -- The transgressive sublime, katharsis, and animal sacrifice -- Caring to hear, caring to see: art as emergence -- Conclusion