After the success of Living by Water, novelist and nature writer Brenda Peterson turns her eye on the nature in human nature. Her focus in mainly the feminine body -- of earth and women, of animals, human and nonhuman. Whether writing about whales or women's bathing rituals, salmon or friendship, rain forests or life-saving dreams, Peterson weaves a compelling story of the bond between nature and ourselves. This rich, expanded collection was first hailed by critics as "lyrical and life-enhancing...with large doses of wonder, humor, and warmth." The new essays include a moving appeal to seek compassion in healing our sexual lives during this time of AIDS. There are also chronicles of the birth, death, and afterlife of a baby beluga whale, and of the seagull's memory for human faces. Peterson's passionately observed subjects range from lullabies to abortion, dolphins to old-growth forests, fundamentalism to fishing. Combining her skills as a mesmerizing storyteller and nationally acclaimed nature writer, Peterson explores the healing, vital symbiosis between the sacred, sensual body of our earth and the feminine -- and intimacy which instructs and inspires, but most of all sustains us. "Nature was my first mother--the fragrant, old forests of the Sierra Nevada mountains near the California-Oregon border, where my father worked on the Plumas National Forest. Living in a rough-hewn Forest Service cabin on vast acres of fir, mysterious blue spruce, and ponderosa pine, I memorized the forest floor as I would my mother's body," Brenda Peterson writes in the introduction to Nature and Other Mothers: Personal Stories of Women and the Body of Earth . In this collection award-winning novelist and nature writer Peterson meets her goal to "nurture through story" by leaving an impression that is physical and lasting. Woven with threads of intuition, her work brings clarity--whether mourning the death of a baby beluga whale with its mother, exploring compassion and AIDS, helping children find natural animal allies, traveling with her wild aunts, or praising the mysteries of the bath, her humor, grace, and warmth make a reader feel at home, as if her stories were in some ways ours, too. "I believed the encircling tribe of trees were silent neighbors who protectively held the sky up over our rough cabins," she writes. "For all their soaring, deep stillness, the ponderosa pines and giant Douglas firs often made noises in the night, a language of whispers and soft whistles that sang through the cabin's walls." These essays illustrate healing links between humans and nature, revealing that in discovering our place within nature, we can truly find ourselves. --Kathryn True "Peterson writes a vital, intimate prose that energizes readers with its intelligence and good humor." -- Publishers Weekly "Her powerful essays about how and where we find mothering are replete with rich, sensual imagery, poignant still lifes, wisdom and wit." -- Maureen Murdock Author of Father's Daughters After the success of Living by Water, novelist and nature writer Brenda Peterson turns her eye on the nature in human nature. Her focus in mainly the feminine body -- of earth and women, of animals, human and nonhuman. Whether writing about whales or women's bathing rituals, salmon or friendship, rain forests or life-saving dreams, Peterson weaves a compelling story of the bond between nature and ourselves. This rich, expanded collection was first hailed by critics as "lyrical and life-enhancing...with large doses of wonder, humor, and warmth." The new essays include a moving appeal to seek compassion in healing our sexual lives during this time of AIDS. There are also chronicles of the birth, death, and afterlife of a baby beluga whale, and of the seagull's memory for human faces. Peterson's passionately observed subjects range from lullabies to abortion, dolphins to old-growth forests, fundamentalism to fishing. Combining her skills as a mesmerizing storyteller and nationally acclaimed nature writer, Peterson explores the healing, vital symbiosis between the sacred, sensual body of our earth and the feminine -- and intimacy which instructs and inspires, but most of all sustains us. After the success of Living by Water, novelist and nature writer Brenda Peterson turns her eye on the nature in human nature. Her focus in mainly the feminine body -- of earth and women, of animals, human and nonhuman. Whether writing about whales or women's bathing rituals, salmon or friendship, rain forests or life-saving dreams, Peterson weaves a compelling story of the bond between nature and ourselves. This rich, expanded collection was first hailed by critics as "lyrical and life-enhancing...with large doses of wonder, humor, and warmth." The new essays include a moving appeal to seek compassion in healing our sexual lives during this time of AIDS. There are also chronicles of the birth, death, and afterlife of a baby beluga whale, and of the seagull's memory