Two book excerpts that beautifully capture the rhythm one’s mind relaxes into when traveling in wilderness, particularly alone:

Life in the wilderness, especially when one is alone, is a continual contemplation and communion with God and Spirit regarding eternal values.  One does not have to assume any particular stance, invoke incantations, repeat over and over again words such as "Oom," chant, or sing.  To me these are merely hypnotic devices used to bring the mind into focus and into the realm of silence by those who do not have the privilege of living in situations where peace is all about them.  There is no doubt of the efficacy of such ways of preparation or they would not be followed by hundreds of thousands, but when quiet is all around, with no sounds but natural ones — bird songs, wind, washing of waters against shores — the stage is always set for meditation and reflection, whatever one may choose to call it.  Man may not be conscious of contemplation or seeking wisdom, for often no revelations come.  Normal and unplanned contemplation comes as softly as the falling rain or the first snows in late fall when the entire world is waiting.  While no great answers may come at these times, they do infiltrate occasionally and unobtrusively into one's consciousness, but usually there is simply a sense of peace, removal, and a happiness beyond understanding.
- Sigurd F. Olson, Reflections From The North Country       

This song of the waters is audible to every ear, but there is other music in these hills, by no means audible to all. To hear even a few notes of it you must first live here for a long time, and you must know the speech of hills and rivers. Then on a still night, when the campfire is low and the Pleiades have climbed over rimrocks, sit quietly and listen for a wolf to howl, and think hard of everything you have seen and tried to understand. Then you may hear it — a vast pulsing harmony — its score inscribed on a thousand hills, its notes the lives and deaths of plants and animals, its rhythms spanning the seconds and the centuries.
- Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

Update On New Heron Dance Press Books

For the last year and a half I’ve been working on two journals of my art and writing. Both are almost done. I plan to offer a particularly high quality edition of both starting in a week. These collector’s editions will only be available on advance sale — after that a print-on-demand trade edition will be offered at the same price. Each will be about 200 pages in full color, each offering one calendar quarter of journal notes and art. These books will ship in early March, in time for the April quarter. Less expensive PDFs of both will also be available for sale if you’d rather download and print on your own computer. To facilitate this, all books are designed in an 11 x 8.5 inch horizontal format.

• The Song Within explores the use of journaling in creating a life and in creating art. Preliminary work on this book is offered most weekdays to supporters of Heron Dance. What in your life is trying to unfold? The objective is clarity. Clarity isn't easy. You can read more here. You can sign up here.

• Sing Us The Song Only You Can Sing, a book for and about creative outsiders. This book explores what it means to create art as the central purpose of one’s life. Each Saturday I publish an excerpt.

• Summaries of the two e-journals above, and A Pause For Beauty, can be found on the home page here.

Each book will also have an accompanying dayplanner for appointments, goals and reflections and a key thought or quote from that day’s journal. Both of these dayplanners will also be in full color with lay flat coil bindings. These are designed to be used with the journals but can be purchased and used separately for those who prefer. Again PDF versions will also be available for download.

New editions of each will be published quarterly. After one full year is complete, work will begin on a new Heron Dance Book of Love, Gratitude And The Beauty Of Wild Places journal and dayplanner which will follow a similar format with new editions released quarterly.