Awakening Wildness

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.

Christy McConnell, PhD is an educator, scholar, writer, and ecologically-minded adventurer who has researched experience in education for two decades. A tenured professor at the University of Northern Colorado, McConnell has published dozens of research articles and two books exploring ecological and aesthetic experiences. She lives in Centennial, Colorado.

Ackolwedgements Prologue Introduction and Author's Notes Chapter One: This is the Day Learning to Listen Chapter Two: Cultivating Ecological Experiences Consciously connecting with nature through intention and presence Chapter Three: Aesthetic Experience Engaging our Senses Chapter Four: Adventurous Ecological Experience Engaging our Hearts Chapter Five: Ecological Flow Experience Engaging our Desires Chapter Six: Ecological Spiritual Experience Engaging our Intuition Chapter Seven: Ecological Communal Experience Engaging with Like-minded Others Chapter Eight: Sharing Nature Cultivating Ecological Experiences with Children References Index About the Author