Embracing the Seasons: Memories of a Country Garden

by Gunilla Norris

Overview

In Embracing the Seasons Gunilla Norris shares her soulful and thought-provoking observations of a year lived in the countryside and reflects on the abundance and meaning of nature and its cycles of renewal. This journey through the seasons has been shaped by being home in an old farmhouse with its large garden of flowers, vegetables, brook and pond, surrounded by a country landscape of stone walls, woodlots, and living creatures.
The book begins in the spring, with the birds singing in the darkness of dawn and the buds knobbing up on the trees and bushes, and then circles through the warmth and richness of summer, the golden bounty of fall, and the dark serenity of winter. Until it is spring once more.
Embracing the Seasons opens our eyes to ordinary wonders and not so ordinary meanings in the small events and encounters of the everyday. By illuminating the joy and beauty of daily life, it is an invitation to find and honor the sacred in the place we call home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629190051
Publisher:	BlueBridge
Publication date:	06/09/2015
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

GUNILLA NORRIS is a writer, meditation teacher, and psychotherapist in private practice. Her books include 'Simple Ways', 'Inviting Silence', and 'Being Home'.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Spring

Peepers 7

Skunk Cabbage 11

Finches 15

Dahlias 19

Poison Ivy 23

Quince Tree 27

Soil 31

Impatiens 35

Summer

Peonies 41

Pond 45

Daylilies 49

Hostas 53

Black Snake 57

Vines 61

Cicadas 65

Harvest 69

Fall

Leaves 75

Compost 79

Feral Cat 83

Woodpile 87

Mice 91

Thanksgiving 95

Winter

Bulldog 101

Ash Trees 105

Storm 109

Tracks 113

Thaw 117

Geese 121

Spring Again

Wildrlowers 127

Editorial Reviews

PRAISE for Gunilla Norris’s “A MYSTIC GARDEN”:
“...Norris cycles through the four seasons of a gardener’s heart...[She] writes lyrically about dormancy and transformation, soil and nourishment, roots and blossoms.”—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“...a worthy addition to [Norris’s] writing and a pleasure for those of her readers whose need for an everyday spirituality...extends to the garden.”—LIBRARY JOURNAL

PRAISE FOR GUNILLA NORRIS:
“I was almost breathless with wonder at the beauty of Gunilla Norris’s words—so simple and yet so profound, striking home gently because they are so true, so authentic.”—Bishop DESMOND M. TUTU

“Gunilla Norris’s simple precepts for meditating and living have a translucent quality. We can all benefit greatly by observing them.”—THICH NHAT HANH

“Just when I had about given up, along comes Gunilla Norris to reaffirm the possibility of writing prayers about real life in today’s world.”—Rabbi HAROLD S. KUSHNER

“Gunilla Norris’s meditations are beautiful and human and show the glory in the ordinary.”—MADELEINE L’ENGLE

From the Publisher