Heron Dance publishes the
Zen Mountain Journal:
A Simple Way of Life.
Art and writing inspired by ancient Zen and Taoist poets.
All Heron Dance books are published (or shortly will be) in both inexpensive e-formats (PDF and Kindle) and in print, either wire-o lay-flat binding or as premium hardcovers.
All prices include taxes and shipping for domestic orders.
The following options start with the least expensive.
Zen Mountain Journal: A Simple way of life.
This online publication is inspired by the poetry of ancient Zen monks and the Taoist mountain hermits of antiquity who wrote about the search for the quiet within, pursued in solitude and in nature. And it’s influenced by the role of water in Taoism as a guide on the spiritual path. Having spent much of my younger life paddling wild rivers and lakes in the Canadian north, water has long had a mysterious and profound spiritual role in my life.
I never get lost because I don't know where I'm going.
- Zen master Ikkya
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You can read more about Heron Dance Art Studio books below and here.
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(Cover to the right is of our book, Wild Waters and the Tao, published in 2013.
Art
Heron Dance Art Studio offers a variety of art originals, framed originals, giclée prints, framed prints and posters.
Books
Meditations on Gratitude, Beauty and Mystery
Gratitude as a philosophy of life and spiritual practice.
Meditations on Gratitude, Beauty and Mystery explores gratitude as a spiritual practice and philosophy of life.
Our lives are a brief spark between two eternities. We are surrounded by natural beauty. The nature of the gift we've been given -- life -- is elusive and mysterious. This book celebrates that gift. What we express gratitude for gains power in our lives. Meditations on Gratitude offers perspectives on gratitude from Ralph Waldo Emerson and Aldo Leopold to Rachel Carson, and from Albert Einstein to Dorothy Day and Helen Keller. And it contains the author's reflections and poem on inspired by those perspectives. It is an anthology of love for the planet and for life. It can be used as the inspiration for a journaling practice.
The work in this book evolved out of the popular online journal, A Pause for Beauty (now The Journals of Archibald Campbell, Wild Artist) as well as The Heron Dance Book of Love and Gratitude, the book published twenty years ago that remains the most popular book Heron Dance has ever published.
156 pages.
Softcover, lay flat wire-o binding, 11 x 8.5 inches horizontal.
Order the lay-flat, wire-o print softcover here ($49).
Order the PDF with an immediate download here ($9.99).
Nurturing The Song Within explores the inner work out of which creative work and a unique human life evolve. It contains key insights from hundreds of interviews Heron Dance founder Roderick MacIver has conducted over the last thirty years of people who choose their own path in life, and persist through the challenges and setbacks to make their dreams real.
Those interviewed include artists, adventurers, activists, and people who devote their lives to serving others. The book explores the murky waters of deep imagination, friendship with one’s inner world, and how those inspire creativity. In the interviews, and through reflections on both those interviews and his own life, the author seeks to understand the hidden wellsprings that guide and provide the clarity and courage required to create a unique life. This is a book by someone who has done it –- who has been a fulltime working artist for thirty years. Over ninety of the author’s full color paintings accompany the reflections and interview excerpts in each volume of the two-book set.
A human life is an expression of ideas, of dreams, of courage and of discipline. Or the lack thereof. A life fully lived, a unique life, grows out of something deep – the essence of a human being. It evolves out of that which is sacred inside each of us. Its exact source is difficult to explain; it can however be sensed and understood.
There are still a few copies of the first edition of Nurturing the Song Within available. This is a premium art book with a Smyth-sewn lay flat binding. It explores the inner work underlying creative work.
Each two-page spread includes a painting and observations on living a creative, meaningful life.
Hardcover first edition with dust jacket. $95 including shipping and taxes. Order here.
PDF $9.99 including tax. Order here.
More information here.
Day planner (print version): 196 pages, full-color diary and planner: Wire-O lay flat binding
Room for appointments and goals
A daily key inspirational quote and/or journaling prompt from the full color art journal.
This Planner is dated April 1 to June 30 but can be used in any year, or any time of year if you don’t mind seeing the date notations at the top of the page — for example “April 1”.
$49 including tax and shipping.
Order the softcover (lay-flat, wire-o bound) edition here.
Order the PDF ($9.99) here.
More information here.
The Pausing For Beauty Poetry Diary
This beautiful undated diary contains dozens of poems selected to inspire thought about the nature and meaning of life and our connection to the natural world. The poems are accompanied by dozens of Roderick MacIver watercolors, some in full color, some watercolor sketches and delicate washes.
The Poetry Diary contains plenty of room for your journal notes and own poetry.
114 pages in total.
$44 print version. Order here.
$9.99 PDF. Order here.
Can’t Find Something?
Email Rod:
rod@herondance.org.
. . .
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