Sanctuary (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780578647050)

Where do we find sanctuary? How do we create it? And how do we keep it? This book is an extended meditation on these questions, as well as an exploration of particular places that have been sanctuaries in the author's life.

The book begins with a foreward that puts the celebration of nature in the context of our times, acknowledging the ecological fragmentation that confronts us, and challenging us to find a way to advocate for land that we love. Then, the book's first section draws upon childhood memory as it takes readers to the canyons and mountains of Northern Arizona, the author's first home. The second section of the book takes readers to the North Cascade Range of Washington state, with a particular emphasis on the physical and spiritual qualities of water in its various forms: river, tarn, glacier, snowpack, and estuary. The third and final section crosses the Atlantic Ocean to Iceland. Volcanoes figure prominently in this section--both their creative and destructive effects on the land, and their influence on human inhabitants.

Weaving personal stories together with geography, history, and ecology, Sanctuary delves into some of Earth's most powerful and important natural forces: pollination, volcanic activity, and flowing water. Starting in a pine tree in the back yard of the author's childhood home, and ending on a windswept beach on the coast of Iceland, these essays explore how human beings are sustained, in body and spirit, by our connection to the rest of this splendid planet.