This book is for anyone who has found solace in the forests, meadows and wilderness. Johnson sees--and conveys to the reader--that the natural world is a mentor, curative and friend. Her writing encourages us to slow down, appreciate the earth's rich beauty, and, in the process, become found.
Being lost isn't always a bad thing--indeed Cathy Johnson helps us see that it can be the adventure of a lifetime. In this book, the Missouri native sets out on a quest through the forests and trails of her region, searching not only for answers, but for life's bigger and broader questions--under stones, under bark and underwater.
"Being in possession of all the answers holds no appeal at all, but owning a good pocketful of unanswered questions is to me like bread to the starving," Johnson writes.
An accomplished artist, Johnson's lovely ink drawings, add to her deeply personal writing. She mourns the careless destruction of wild lands and the deaths of her father and a friend, while also weaving in scientific discussion as she explores seasonal depression, the chaos theory, and more.
Johnson sees small, faint game paths--rather than superhighways--as connecting the major events in all our lives. While it's easy to lose the path altogether as it traverses difficult terrain, getting lost is one of life's greatest adventures.
Readers interested in related titles from Cathy A. Johnson will also want to see: A Naturalist's Cabin (ISBN: 1635610656), The Nocturnal Naturalist (ISBN: 163561564X), Painting Nature's Details in Watercolor (ISBN: 1635615658).
About the AuthorJohnson, Cathy: - Cathy Johnson has worked as a naturalist, writer, and freelance artist for the past 40 years, and was staff naturalist and contributing editor for Country Living magazine for 11 years. She has been a contributing editor to Artist's Magazine and Watercolor Artist, and authored a regular column in Personal Journaling, where she wrote on the importance of creativity in our lives. Her writing and artwork have been included in a number of nature anthologies and art books. She has written and illustrated many books, and contributed to a number of others, working with a variety of national publishing houses. In 1993, she founded her own small publishing company, Graphics/Fine Arts Press, which primarily offers books of interest to the reenacting community or others interested in history and material culture. She has been a longtime member of the Author's Guild. She was chosen Conservation Communicator of the Year by the Burroughs Audubon Society in l987, and won the Thorpe Menn Award for Creative Writing (AAUW) for The Naturalist's Cabin: Constructing the Dream (Viking Penguin) in 1992. Cathy teaches a number of self-directed mini-classes on her website, http: //cathyjohnson.info. She also offers a number of free tutorial videos on YouTube; visit https: //www.youtube.com/user/KateJosTube.
