The Soul Unearthed is a lovely collection of essays about finding one’s soul through exploring Mother Nature in her wild and beautiful state.  Each essay is completely different, in length, content and voice.  It feels uneven at times, but also spontaneous and fresh.

This selection is culled from a short, provocative excerpt (from one of the contributing essayists) about sharing her menstrual blood with the earth during a wilderness retreat.  Although I’m a bit squeamish about these sorts of rituals, I really paused after reading her short description of how this ritual changed her.

I often let expediency rule my life, instead of beauty or truth or appropriateness or wilderness.
But I know now, and I don’t have to go the mountains to remember, because sharing my blood in the wilderness
woke me to the wilderness in my blood.

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