The world is a beautiful and awe-inspiring place, full of wonders both large and small. Our world is also in a state of climate crisis, with the future feeling more uncertain with every catastrophe. The books below invite us to listen and learn from the other-than-human creatures we live alongside to rediscover the beauty of the natural world and learn how we can better care for and uplift the earth. Be inspired to cultivate a greater sense of curiosity, gratitude, respect, and motivation to safeguard the planet we call home.
Learn from Nature's Mothers
What does it mean to be a mother in an era of climate catastrophe? In prose that teems with longing, lyricism, and knowledge of ecology, Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder writes of the silent flight and aural maps of barn owls, of nursing whales, of real and imagined forests, of tidal marshes, of ancient single-celled organisms, and of newly planted gardens. The creatures inhabiting these stories teach us about centering, belonging, entanglement, edgework, homemaking, and how to imagine the future. Rooted in wonder while never shying away from loss, Mother, Creature, Kin reaches toward a language of inclusive care learned from creatures living at the brink.
Rewild Your Spirituality in Nature
Field Guide to Church of the Wild
Victoria Loorz, Valerie Luna Serrels
Church of the Wild is more than a novel way to do church outside or declare nature your church. Expanding beyond religious and institutional boundaries, it invites you to rewild your spirituality no matter your spiritual heritage. Field Guide to Church of the Wild invites us into landscapes and wild church communities to meet the movement's leaders and participants, both human and more-than-human. Take this field guide with you into the fields and wildish edge lands of your home place. Join an emerging yet ancient spiritual practice: remembering our place in an alive and holy web of interconnection.
Also available is Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred.
Revel in the Beauty and Wisdom of Trees
Discovering the Spiritual Wisdom of Trees
There is great wisdom to learn from trees, and when we connect intimately with them, we can deepen our spiritual lives and grow in the understanding that all beings are part of the fabric of the holy. Trees have much to offer as soul friends, and their millennia of growth and loss provide deep wisdom, if we know how to pay attention. The Spiritual Wisdom of Trees encourages us to revel in the beauty and wonder of trees as they increase our capacity to bear witness to loss and grief. Integrating science and spirituality, coauthors Beth Norcross and Leah Rampy explore the knowledge held within the living world of trees and planted within each of us.
Discover the Divine in the Natural World
Throughout millennia and across the monotheistic religions, the natural was often revered as a sacred text. As we grapple to make sense of today's tumultuous world, one where nature is at once a damaged and damaging source of disaster, as well as a place of refuge and retreat, we are called again to examine how generously it awaits our attention and devotion, standing ready to be read by all. Weaving together the astonishments of science; the profound wisdom and literary gems of thinkers, poets, and observers who have come before us; and her own spiritual practice and gentle observation, Barbara Mahany reintroduces us to The Book of Nature. We needn't look farther for the divine.
Reimagine How to Care for a Changing World
How do we use our incredible power to heal rather than to harm? What does it mean to truly love a forest? How to Love a Forest is a tender and fearless reimagining of what it means to care for forests, ecosystems, and each other in a changed and changing world. In this bracing, clear-eyed, yet hopeful work, forester Ethan Tapper weaves a new land ethic for the modern world, reminding us that what is simple is rarely true, and what is necessary is rarely easy.
Grapple with Parenting in the Age of Climate Collapse
We are living in an era of climate collapse, and climate anxiety touches nearly everything we do—including our parenting. This Sweet Earth wrestles with our questions and fears and dares to argue that while the future remains unknown, there is still awe and wonder, love and struggle, gratitude and joy to be found. As we raise our children toward this uncertain future, Lydia Wylie-Kellermann helps us see that those same children shift our posture, slow us down, and invite us to fall in love with the ground on which we stand.
To view all of our books and resources, visit broadleafbooks.com.
