Meditating on gratitude with author and photographer

Cottage Grove author and photographer Eric Alan will offer a presentation from his new book “Grateful by Nature: Walking Gratitude’s Wild Path Home,” at Paulina Springs Books on Thursday, December 8. Alan will read selections from his new book along with a slideshow featuring his beautiful photographs of nature.

“Grateful by Nature” offers gratitude as our shared path home, within a return to nature. Through poetic stories and vivid photographs, the book’s mindful walk through five seasons in the Oregon backwoods outlines gratitude as a devoted practice. It guides gratitude into daily action, able to transform our most painful challenges into healing and compassion. Being grateful is like being a carpenter: the skills are only realized when you use them to build shelter for others. Grateful care for each other and the life around us becomes the shelter we share. Gratitude becomes as beautiful as the wild earth, as comforting as awakening peacefully at home.

Eric Alan is an author, photographer, lyricist, and feral forest resident.

His book Wild Grace: Nature as a Spiritual Path has inspired workshops and meditations on the reintegration of nature into daily life.

Its sequel Grace and Tranquility offers contemplative peace in a turbulent world.

The companion Grace and Tranquility album merges the music of international recording artists Gypsy Soul with lyrics adapted from both books.

The wild spirit within baseball is in This Is Our Time!, co-written with Major League Baseball writer Chris Haft. Grateful by Nature integrates photography and prose from a decade of contributions to Celebrate What’s Right with the World, a movement founded by former National Geographic photographer Dewitt Jones.

It also arises from community events called The Nature of Gratitude, which gather authors, musicians, poets, social activists, and others to raise gratitude and awareness for local causes.

As a founding board member of Cerro Gordo Land Conservancy, Eric assisted in obtaining conservation easements to protect 1,000 acres of vital open land.

He was also the full-time caregiver for his mother in the forests, until her passing near her 94th birthday.

Eric Alan presents “Grateful by Nature: Walking Gratitude’s Wild Path Home,” Thursday, December 8, at 6:30 p.m. at Paulina Springs Book, 252 W. Hood Ave. For more information call 541-549-0866 or visit www.paulinaspringsbooks.com.