The Healing Terrain

"The Healing Terrain exhorts the reader to discover his or her own place as the first step in healing ourselves, whether becoming a healer or becoming a complete person, and then provides the tools to do this. It is like a long love poem to the natural world - be prepared to fall in love." -Judy Goldhaft (Planet Drum Foundation) The Healing Terrain is a deeply felt invitation to connect to the land more than you might have ever before, with tools and tips for its accomplishment. Its authors explore topics of: Sense of place and finding true home, the geology of place, the medicine of water, wildcrafting, gardening, bioregional herbalism, invasive species, and learning to become more native ourselves, purchasing and rewilding a piece of land, and re-wilding both our beings and our daily lives. Jesse Wolf Hardin is joined by his partner Kiva Rose, famed herbalist David Hoffmann (author of Medical Herbalism), Phyllis Light, Robin Rose Bennett and more. Their writings and hundreds of illustrations provide inspiration to heal and instigation to enliven, changing ourselves and our world for the better. From Hardin's Introduction: "The living land is not only the foundation for, but also the essential source of our individual healing, of the repairing of our physical bodies, our emotional beings and spirits... just as the land is the source of and an ongoing aid to the development of our abilities and means to help heal other people, ailing communities and impacted places. The land provides the fertile soils for our gardens and farms, and thus the nutrient filled foods and medicinal plants we need to be healthy." Henry David Thoreau wrote about our need for the "tonic" of the wild natural world, reminding us "There is good medicine to be found in nature." Hardin, too, makes this case... and perhaps more eloquently than has ever been made before: "Rightfully at the core of all Natural Healing is nature, from the herbs it provides to the positive healthful examples it offers. By deepening our conscious relationship with the land, we create the opportunities and conditions for increased sensual engagement and creature awareness, empowerment and self-authority, uninhibited pleasures and fun, and greater effectiveness at nearly everything we might try to do in life."