Description: "Once, we were one form among many in the Garden. We learned to hear the voices of the mountains, the rivers, the sky, of silence. The mice spoke, the trees spoke, the stars spoke, the deer and the fox spoke, the snake spoke--and from these words we made being. These words formed great cities and their machines ever clamoring, and we let the silence slip and the words of the whispering world fall away beyond the mirror of our making." (from the prologue)
These eighteen meditations, amplified by Jerry Shearing's striking illustrations, offer luminous words enlivened with the weight of much listening. Through these "conversations," Peter Owen Jones offers a pathway to reconnect with nature. Just a few sentences a day provides sustenance for the soul.
Brief description:
Jerry Shearing and his partner Andrea Shearing create and teach at their studio in Sussex South Downs, UK. To capture nature and the environment, they also have a travel studio--a converted classic French fire engine referred to as the "Location Studio." Jerry trained at Eastbourne School of Art. His work is based on the dynamics of nature and the interaction of nature with the elements. His work expresses his reaction to sounds, smells, the colors, and textures, as well as the movements and interplay of sunlight, rain, and wind. He works largely with acrylic paint on canvas using only the primary colors mixed on the palette or on the canvas itself. His influences are the Impressionists, Expressionists and Abstract Expressionists.
Review Quotes:
"I will carry this little book in my pocket.... I will read the words on London buses and in Dartmoor Woods. These across-species conversations are more than reverie, they are participation." - Martin Shaw, author of Smoke Hole and Courting the Wild Twin
"This is a book of profound imagination. Read it and you will know that we humans need to be humble and learn from the greatest teacher, Nature." - Satish Kumar, Editor Emeritus, Resurgence and Ecologist