Many of us go into nature to
unwind and be refreshed, but when we try to talk to others about how nature is
transforming us, we find it hard to express the changes in words.
In Breaking Into the Backcountry, Steve Edwards takes on the challenge
of describing this inner movement. He invites us into his days as he takes care
of a cabin in the wild backcountry of Oregon for seven months. With no one
around, he is forced to deal with the silence, isolation, and unresolved
struggles in his life. As John Muir, one of Edwards’s heroes, said, the journey
into nature is also a journey into ourselves.
Insights of Thoreau, Rilke,
Thomas Merton and others guide him as he adjusts to the solitude and his life
intersects with the lives of the deer, bear, and mice. There are keen
observations of nature’s changes as it transitions from April to November.
At the beginning of the book,
Edwards questions how he is going to cope with living alone. By the middle of
summer, lost in the glory of another sunset, so much has happened that he
wonders how many other epiphanies he has already forgotten.
This is a book of presence,
of discovering foundations. Solitude becomes part of him. Edwards does not
arrive at the destination he seeks, but he finds the path that is taking him there,
a path of guidance and nourishment.
This is a beautifully written
book.
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