Awakening wildness reconnecting with nature and ourselves Christy McConnell

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McConnell, Christy, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmental education.

Environmental psychology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

New York Bloomsbury Academic 2026

Summary:

"A personal narrative and guide for those who seek not just to walk in nature, but to be transformed by it. When her father, Jack, first led her into the canyons of New Mexico, he was teaching Christy more than knots and footholds; he was offering an inheritance of wonder. Six weeks later, he was gone—killed in a climbing accident in Estes Park, Colorado. The lessons learned in that short time have echoed through Christy’s life as she sought to understand not only how to connect with nature as her father taught her, but also how to help others do the same. She has spent her life exploring what it means to live with an awakened, ecological heart. Drawing on educational theory, philosophy, and lived experience, this book explores five pathways to deepen ecological experiences: aesthetic, where beauty awakens awe; adventure, where risk deepens relationship; flow, where immersion becomes transcendent; spiritual, where mystery offers new ways of knowing; and communal, where belonging expands to humans and beyond. Each chapter weaves a story with reflection—part field guide, part elegy, part invitation—to help readers cultivate their own relationship with wildness. McConnell illuminates how encounters with nature can transform grief into gratitude, isolation into reciprocity, and fear into reverence. This book reminds us that wildness is not a place we visit, but a place we inhabit and that inhabits us"-- Bloomsbury Collections

Contents:

This is the day

Cultivating ecological experiences

Ecological aesthetic experience

Ecological adventure experience

Ecological flow experience

Ecological spiritual experience

Ecological communal experience

Sharing nature

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from home page (Bloomsbury Collections, viewed August 21, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version McConnell, Christy Awakening wildness

ISBN:

9798216351641

9798216351658

9798216351634

OCLC:

1595731740

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license