Little, Brown, 2023
ISBN: 978-0316426497
Reviewed by Alan Dearing
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Lyanda Haupt was lying on her back, next to the stream of sparkling stones, listening to birdsong and the whispering of the overhead trees. She had carefully placed three or four frogs on her bare tummy and she was aware of their ‘strange round breathing.’ She was in a wooded canyon near enough to home so that her mum could yell when lunch was ready. Lyanda went to this treasured place barefoot, carrying a pad of paper for notes and sketches, but would only use it if it was not going to disturb any wildlife visitations.
Lyanda carried this sensitivity into her adult life, and the book she has written; Rooted – Life at the crossroads of Science, Nature and Spirit is a series of themes based on her life experiences which are then investigated in all their aspects.
Rootedness describes a connection with wildness that Lyanda believes is sustenance for us all, though we may not know it. She has nurtured and sought to understand that connection, and it was encouraging to read that she is happy to refer to science to support her animist and mystical mindset. Her understanding of science is completely in line with the emerging shift of some first rate progressive academics away from narrowness and rigidity. Mysteries beyond scientific understanding, she believes, will ever remain.
In her adult life Lyanda was able to research her childhood preferences. She gathered evidence on the health implications of barefoot walking and forest bathing. She investigated the psychological evidence relating to solitude, which she is drawn to for replenishment, because she finds something sacred and enfolding in that intimate situation. Lyanda says that she is encouraged through knowing that her solitude is willingly entered into and that there is an easy bail-out option.
Wild darkness can also be scary, but in her musings in the chapter entitled ‘Return to a Fruitful Darkness’ Lyanda is again in accord with science relating to the human need for restful rhythms of light and dark.
Empathic affinity with animal intelligence is the subject of the chapter ‘Relate’ and the naivety of my campaigning days was made clear by the clean honesty of the chapter ‘Speak, The Abracadabra of Earth’. It refers to the way in which we use words. I used to spend some time trying to get my head round environmental economics, the better to engage with modern money driven preoccupations. Lyanda recognises the failure of this method, and her words reflect the truth that trying to solve a problem using a similar mindset is not productive. We must, she believes, choose words that describe the aliveness of nature and our genuine need for it.
The chapter that I was most grateful to read was called ‘Grow’, mainly because of the section ‘Weirdos among the trees.’ Lyanda writes; ‘we must use all the connections we can with the whole of life, no matter how at-risk that puts our public facing facade of normality.’ She has a typically straight response to accusations of being a ‘Tree hugging dirt worshipper – thank you’, she says, ‘yes’ Lyanda gives the reader three practices which would have resulted in medical investigation a hundred years ago, but which brings into being a reciprocity with trees, one of which is to read to them. There is, though, a credible psychological reason for this approach.
The most useful chapter covers earth activism. She has an inspiring way of regarding our home activities, and she advises us to work with our own gifts or powers, however humble and whatever they are in service to the wild earth. It is a chapter of mercifully modest proposals, and she quotes the Carmelite Therese of Lisieux: ‘To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul’.
Finally Lyanda considers death as a wild return and in unstinting detail, describes its physical processes.
In working through this thoughtful and balanced book I was taken aback to find two close references to a poem I had just completed and published, before I had even heard of Lyanda. I mention this because I think that Greenspirited minds are converging on a new and shared perception. In a way, I suppose, it is a meme, a cultural telepathy. Well, anyway, as a result, I am left with a deeper sense of belonging and security. I have a home to go back to.