This one wild and precious life : the path to connection in a fractured world

$Cover image for This one wild and precious life : the path to connection in a fractured world$

Title:

Author:

WILSON, SARAH, 1974- author

Personal Author:

WILSON, SARAH, 1974- author

ISBN:

9780062962973

Physical Description:

344 pages ; 21 cm

General Note:

"Published in Australia in 2020 by Pan Macmillan Australia."--Title page verso

Abstract:

Addresses the chronic loneliness affecting a high percentage of people today, discussing the vulnerabilities of high-pressure, tech-driven environments and how to view solitude through a spiritual lens.

Subject Term:

Genre:

Self-help publications

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Ginter Park	Book	155.92 W	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Main Library	Book	155.92 W	Searching... Unknown
Searching... West End	Book	155.92 W	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

As seen in USA Today's hottest releases and The Washington Post's 10 New Books Spotlight

"Sarah Wilson is a force of nature - quite literally. She has taken her pain and grief about our sick and troubled world and alchemized it into action, advocacy, adventure, poetry, and true love." -- ELIZABETH GILBERT

Wake up and reclaim your one wild and precious life. New York Times bestselling author Sarah Wilson shows you how in this radical spiritual guidebook, the book we need NOW.

Many of us are living with the sense that things are not right with the world and are in a state of spiritual PTSD. We have retreated, morally and psychologically; we are experiencing a crisis of disconnection--from one another, from our true values, from joy, and from life as we feel we are meant to be living it. Sarah Wilson argues that this sense of despair and disconnection is ironically what unites us--that deep down, we are all feeling that same itch for a new way of living. Drawing on science, literature, philosophy and the wisdom of some of the world's leading experts, and her personal journey, Wilson offers a hopeful path forward to the life we love. En route, she shows us how to wake up and reconnect with life using "wild practices" that include:

· Hike. Embrace the "walking cure" as great minds throughout history have.

· Go to your edge. Do what scares you and embrace discomfort daily.

· #Buylesslivemore. Break the cycle of mindless consumption and get light with your life.

· Become a soul nerd. Light up your intellect with the arts.

· Get "full-fat spiritual". Have an active practice and use it to change the world.

· Practice wild activism. Through sustained, non-violent protest we can create our better world.

The time has come to boldly, wildly imagine better. We are being called upon, individually and as a society, to forge a new path and to find a new way of living. Will you join the journey?

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

An earnest pastiche of political theorizing, travel memoir, and environmental exhortation that attempts to encourage readers to act constructively in an increasingly disconnected world. The former editor of Cosmopolitan Australia and author of I Quit Sugar and its many sequels confronts the "itch" she feels as a result of a world beset by climate change, Covid-19, and the consequences of neoliberalism. She has made a good faith effort to integrate the changes wrought on the world by the coronavirus into a book ready for publication before the pandemic hit. No one could accuse her of inadequate research: Almost every page is peppered with quotations, statistics, and factoids, often set in the margins. While there are no sources included in the book, the author notes links to some on her website. Many others--such as Wilson's assertion that "many famous artists, writers and creatives walk to cure bipolar and constipation, or, more often than not, both (because they often travel together)"--are not readily verifiable and may take further digging by readers. The text comprises 136 miniature chapters, interwoven with frustratingly brief descriptions of hikes the author has taken in various sites in the world. Summaries of snippets of scientific research alternate with pages of advice on living a minimalist life as well as chapters about the author's personal journey, with emphasis on a trip to Crete when she was in her mid-40s to attempt a pregnancy by way of in vitro fertilization using the sperm of a 21-year-old Danish poetry student. Some of Wilson's advice is suspect: She advocates hitchhiking as well as hiking without water or a map. Her suggestions regarding frugality are sometimes excessive, as when she notes how she "started collecting butter scraps at cafes" in addition to fish bones and carcasses to make bone broth. Loosely structured at best, the disjointed narrative jumps from topic to topic every page or two, which will leave many readers adrift. One for the fans. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.