Into the Wild: Ageing, Nature, and a Horse Named Jackson

I had started to think that my Nature Boy days were over. For one thing, I wasn't a boy anymore. And Nature seemed a lot less friendly than it used to, perhaps even malevolent. So why go out at all? Except, that way death lies. A slow death, my body atrophying by degree.

But Nature has begun calling to me anew, as if we weren't through with each other yet. In fact, my spiritual path "on the other side of church land" might be leading me, not just beyond the walls of the church, but right back out into the natural world, which I never should have left in the first place. This is the story of a spiritual journey ... into the wild.

Credits:
All sound effects during the interludes reproduced under Creative Commons 0 Licence, with the exception of Interlude #3: "Outro a12" by Setuniman on FreeSounds, Attribution Noncommercial Licence; and "Record Scratch" by luffy on FreeSounds, Attribution License.

Photo by David Billings on Unsplash

Resources:
The Animas Valley Institute: https://www.animas.org
Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth; Sierra Club, 1988
Bill Plotkin, Soul Craft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche , New World Library, 2003
 ____________, Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World, New World Library, 2008
____________. WildMind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche, New World Library, 2013
____________. The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries, New World Library, 2021

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: mysticcaveman53@gmail.com

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2022