Nature's Temple

Daily Wisdom from John Muir

Compiled by Chris Highland

Natures Temple - Daily Wisdom from John Muir ( from the book's dust jacket )

Nature's Temple: Daily Wisdom from John Muir
Compiled by Chris Highland
(San Rafael, California, A Ha! Creation Published by eARTheART, 2000)

THIS EDITION IS OUT OF PRINT. See the CURRENT EDITION:
Meditations of John Muir: Nature's Temple, by Chris Highland (publisher's press release)

It's hard to imagine John Muir sitting quietly, writing at his desk overlooking his orchards in Martinez, California, far away from his heart's home in the highlands of the mountains. Yet he wrote and his pen gave us a new scent of the sacred, a fresh poetry of our home in the natural world. From his desk he could gaze out over his plantings and recall countless journeys to the fields of the Lord. Until his death on Christmas Eve 1914, Muir sauntered the planet and scribbled of his sauntering, handing over to us a harvest of experiences that call out to us with a voice not unlike a prophet or mystic. In his wisdom we rediscover something hidden or lost in the Nature nearby.

No one could follow in Muir's bounding footsteps. As he once said, we merely inhabit a spinning globe that leaves no track through the universe. Yet in a greater sense, each of us can bound along with Muir. We can explore the wilderness near and far and fill our lungs with the electric air that energized Muir. We can drink from the same singing streams and be sheltered by the same living temples. We are bound to Muir as we spring our steps into the boundless sanctuary of Nature - even into ourselves.

Each of the 36 selections takes its title from a major spiritual insight in Muir's life. Below the epigram is found a brief quotation from a companion path offered for comparison. The selection itself is for your thought, meditation and pure pleasure. At the bottom of each page is the text from which the selection is drawn, encouraging he reader to seek out the contextual meadows and deeper valleys that cradle the fountains touched by Muir. Sources are listed at the conclusion.

This small book contains but a handful of seeds from the hand and mind of this man who has inspired generations of soul-travelers. Carry it in your pocket; read by starlight; look to the fields, the orchards, the forests, the mountains ‹ find your temple ‹ climb!

Chris Highland is a minister, a chaplain, a spiritual scootcher who has led expeditions into wisdom traditions, along mystic trails and heretic paths, for many a year. A graduate of Seattle Pacific University with a degree in Religion and Philosophy, Chris came to Marin County, California to earn his Masters at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo. His long journey as a chaplain has taken him from schools to jails to the streets, and his adventure of the heart has led him from the Cascades to the Sierras to the Rockies, and to the Highlands of Scotland.

To order copies or to contact the author please send light-mail to naturetemple@earthlink.net

Also available on this website:

Meditations of John Muir: Nature's Temple, by Chris Highland (publisher's press release)

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