A memoir about abandoning an exhausting commuter lifestyle to move to a cabin in the woods, embracing imperfection while cultivating a life of care for self and nature.
Alice Irene Whittaker was addicted to productivity, perfectionism, and discipline, making sure that every single moment of the day was accounted for. Then she finds herself as a new mother, commuting four hours a day into the city, exhausted by the state of the world, paralyzed by climate guilt and anxiety. Overnight, Alice Irene and her family decide to retreat to a cabin in the woods, in search of a new kind of life.
Surrounded by creek, meadow, and forest, Alice Irene begins a new lifelong journey of repairing her fractured relationship with both herself and the natural world. Her quest takes her to meet a renowned economist-rancher in Colorado, to stand at the side of a runway at a sustainable fashion show in Portland, and to witness firsthand rewilding of wolves in Yellowstone. She interviews and learns from dozens of people who are building homes, growing food, making clothes, raising families, and living their lives in regenerative ways.
Searching for the spaces between the sorrow of wildfires and the beauty of wildflowers, Homing is a lyrical memoir about moving from a life of despair to a life of care.
Authors
- Pages
- 352
- Published in
- Calgary, CA
- Rights
- Alice Irene Whittaker
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- Back Cover 2
- Half-Title 3
- Title 5
- Copyright 6
- Dedication 7
- Table of Contents 1 8
- Table of Contents 2 9
- Epigraph 11
- Chapter One: Fledgling (Prologue) 13
- Chapter Two: The Swallows Leave in September (Migrations) 15
- Chapter Three: Birdsong Cabin (Unpacking) 29
- Chapter Four: Belongings (Houses and Home Making) 49
- Chapter Five: The Borrowed Nest and the Owl (Regenerative Farming and Soil) 67
- Chapter Six: If Ravens Share (Consumerism Alternatives) 91
- Chapter Seven: My Hand-Stitched Wings (Fashion) 109
- Chapter Eight: The 37-Degree Isotherm (Economy) 143
- Chapter Nine: When Rotten Grass Becomes Fireflies (Growing Food) 161
- Chapter Ten: Creek and Heron (Birth) 169
- Chapter Eleven: Coyote and Wren (Breath) 185
- Chapter Twelve: The Pear Tree and the Shrew (Seeds) 195
- Chapter Thirteen: Lion's Tooth (Ancestors) 213
- Chapter Fourteen: Queen Mouse and Cedar Waxwings (Fibersheds) 227
- Chapter Fifteen: The Last Passenger Pigeon (Extinction) 259
- Chapter Sixteen: "Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers (Awakening) 285
- Chapter Seventeen: Wolf No. 7 (Songbirds) 305
- Chapter Eighteen: Ainé (Epilogue) 321
- Author's Note 326
- Acknowledgements 327
- Interview List 331
- Bibliography 335
- Index 349
- Author Bio 353