Journal Meditations: Working With Inner Silence
The Journal Meditations binder is designed to hold the most popular content from Substacks and books that Zen Mountain Press (and its predecessor Heron Dance Press) has published over the last thirty years, and a new summary “Journaling as a tool in the creation of a life." The binder and the inserts, including blank pages for your writing, is designed so that it can be used as an integral part of a journaling practice.
The binder is designed to hold standard, widely available 11 × 8.5 paper. There are several options:
Order the PDF of the book or books you are most interested in. You can use standard 8.5 × 11 paper to print out the inserts and punch three holes along the long edge to fit in a standard, widely available binder. The PDFs are available for $9.99 each. They are each free to supporting members.
Order the binder and purchase your own inexpensive paper.
Order the binder and purchase the inserts on premium 100lb text weight Mohawk Superfine paper, a paper that not only renders color beautifully but also is an excellent writing surface.
Blank, lined Mohawk Superfine inserts for the binder are available, as are watercolor inserts. All are cut to size and three hole punched to fit the binder.
Order the books in softcover, wire-o bound format. These include blank pages for your journal writing, all on the premium Mohawk Superfine paper described above.
Scroll down for more information on the various insert choices.
The Tao Te Ching Journal: A Path to Inner Quiet
The Tao Te Ching Journal is a contemplative refuge of Taoist wisdom, art, and quiet. It offers a journaling practice, inspired by the ancient words of Laozi, for those who seek to create a life and work in harmony with their vision of a quality life. That quality is related, in part, to the questions we are willing to explore.
The quiet center of a human life needs to be nurtured. This journal is for those who manifest an inner life in some creative work or project that contributes to the lives of others. It is for those who choose a quiet, contemplative life in nature. It is for those who march to a different drummer, who live a set of values outside of those of the dominant culture.
Order the Tao Te Ching Journal PDF. The first page of the PDF also contains the discount code that will enable you to order the print edition if you like, and have the $9.99 cost of the PDF removed from the cost of the print edition.
Order the hardcover Tao Te Ching Journal (layflat wire-o print edition).
Wild Waters and the Tao
Wild Waters and the Tao evolved out of my years of wilderness canoe trips and whitewater kayaking. It is an exploration of the roles of water and wild nature in ancient Taoist poetry. The book is illustrated with dozens of my ink and watercolor paintings. The voices here — Han Shan, Robinson Jeffers, Tu Fu, Li Po, Lao-tsu, Jim Harrison, Meng Hao-jan, Deng Ming-Dao and many others explore the watercourse way — surrender, the softest elements of the universe — water and wind — wear down the hardest immovable objects — rock, mountain and mighty oak.
You can purchase the PDF here.
Print edition sold out. A new print journal will shortly be available.
Nurturing The Song Within Art Journal
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 printed on high quality art paper. Each two-page spread includes a painting and journal notes on living a creative, meaningful life.
Hardcover first edition with dust jacket, $87: order the Nurturing the Song Within hardcover.
Order the Nurturing the Song Within PDF — $9.99 including tax.
The Heron Dance Book of Love and Gratitude
Order the Love and Gratitude PDF.
Print edition sold out but will be available as an insertable section in the binder later in 2026.
Meditations on Gratitude, Beauty and Mystery
Gratitude as a philosophy of life and spiritual practice.
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.
This work evolved out of The Heron Dance Book of Love and Gratitude, (see above) the book published twenty years ago that remains the most popular book Heron Dance has ever published.
11 x 8.5 inches, oblong, with a lay flat double wire-o binding.
156 pages.
Softcover (lay flat, wire-o binding) 11 x 8.5 inches horizontal.
Print edition sold out but will be available as an insertable section in the binder later in 2026.
Order the Meditations on Gratitude PDF ($9.99) for immediate download.
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.
Print version sold out.
Nurturing The Song Within Diary Planner
The print edition of this book is sold out but a new revised edition will be available later in 2026 as a binder insert.