Blue Mountain: A Spiritual Anthology Celebrating the Earth

This is a wonderful collection of poems, musings and essays all revolving around the theme of Nature. You can pick it up anytime, thumb through it, quote it on cards to friends or just when you need some inspiration in this techno existence we're living in. Add it your shelf, why not, it can only do your mind and spirit some good.

Lynne Bachleda calls upon some of my favorite writers and poets (Jeanette Winterson, e.e.cummings, Annie Dillard, Thomas Merton) in order to bring us this marvelous refreshment for the soul. Read all in one sitting, or in bits - it will remind you of how glad you are to be simply alive.

Bachleda has put together an anthology that I would like (and once planned) to have done, but am glad I did not because she has done it so much better. These excerpts are for outdoor folk of any kind, for those who cherish the earth or want to do so more, for hikers and those who enjoy just a sunset or fresh breeze. She has cast a wide net and cites from many ages and cultures and genres of literature, 160 or so indexed authors, passages that are old and welcome friends (like Maclean's "Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it" and Muir's "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings") and many more citations that are new and unexpected gems, even touches of humor like Woody Allen's moose in spats or Marge Piercy shooing the hunters (caw, caw). As in all anthologies everyone will have some favorites that have been left out or will find some selections cited and wonder why. The passages are spiritual and responsible, but without any touch of theological tediousness or political stridency. Bachleda shows us just the beauty, spirit, poetry and wonder of holy earth. Her selections are arranged loosely according to the theme of the hero's journey from desire and need, to marveling and adoration, comprehension and joy, connection and unity, redemption and grace, recognition and compassion, to hope, resolve and beyond. One might read it in that order cover to cover -- which unless done a little at a time would be like eating a giant box of chocolates at a sitting -- but a system of marginal symbols for the elements of nature, the seasons of the year, and the religious sources of the quotations facilitates random access depending upon your location or mood. It is well worth its weight in your backpack or its space on your bookshelf.

Some of us see the hand of the Devine most clearly in our appreciation of the transcendent beauty of the universe, and in particular that of our home planet. Some of us are in great spiritual pain because what we see happening to the environment and the web of life."Blue Mountain" with its wide range of poetry, proverbs, excerpts,and brief essays celebrating the earth was easily the best collection of its kind recently read. It was healing medicine for environmental melancholia and despair. Even though it does nothing to change the daily headlines, the renewal of spirit was a spring tonic for the soul. Reading it again can even ignite a smoldering ember of hope.

This is a book to take with you on trips, a book to keep by your bedside, to read aloud to friends, or to hold close just for the private joy it brings you. Bachleda's love for the natural world and her wise, humane approach to inhabiting it are a joy. She's a rare and wonderful writer! Amy Lynch