Our Wild Calling: How Connecting with Animals Can Transform Our Lives--and Save Theirs

Written by Richard Louv

Narrated by Graham Winton

"Richard Louv has done it again. A remarkable book that will help everyone break away from their fixed gaze at the screens that dominate our lives and remember instead that we are animals in a world of animals." -Bill McKibben, author of Falter Richard Louv's landmark book, Last Child in the Woods, inspired an international movement to connect children and nature. Now Louv redefines the future of human-animal coexistence. Our Wild Calling explores these powerful and mysterious bonds and how they can transform our mental, physical, and spiritual lives, serve as an antidote to the growing epidemic of human loneliness, and help us tap into the empathy required to preserve life on Earth. Louv interviews researchers, theologians, wildlife experts, indigenous healers, psychologists, and others to show how people are communicating with animals in ancient and new ways; how dogs can teach children ethical behavior; how animal-assisted therapy may yet transform the mental health field; and what role the human-animal relationship plays in our spiritual health. He reports on wildlife relocation and on how the growing populations of wild species in urban areas are blurring the lines between domestic and wild animals. Our Wild Calling makes the case for protecting, promoting, and creating a sustainable and shared habitat for all creatures-not out of fear, but out of love. Transformative and inspiring, this book points us toward what we all long for in the age of technology: real connection.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781980062271

Reviews for Our Wild Calling

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 A book that contains a large amount of information. I actually read a few chapters at a time, which I feel is the best way to absorb everything within. Animals, wild and domestic are integral to not only nature but our lives. Our connection is integral to our well being, to our ecological system and a necessary enrichment in our lives.I loved the personal stories, people that connected with an animal, or in one instance, ants that awakened their interest in nature. Comfort animals, animals that help those with various difficulties, endangered animals due to changing habitats and those already irradiated, made extinct by our lack of care. The growth of electronic media, which serves to separate us from each other and the natural world. Just a small sampling of what this important, vital book contains."Some of us think, all of us feel."

[eduscapes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As a fan of Richard Louv, I was looking forward to this book. Once again, Louv has immersed readers in a text that connects humans with the natural world. Louv is effective in helping readers rethink their connection with animals and the natural world. Told through interviews providing a wide range of perspectives, Louv demonstrates the need for compassionate conservation practices that consider the needs of both humans and animals.

[mrstreme · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Our Wild Calling explores human's connections with animals - and how these connections can help humans better understand how to live in our world. The book is filled with stories of human-to-animal connections - from a brief encounter with a fox on a trail to reptiles in a wildlife park. It's a reminder that we are all connected to each other, despite the "species loneliness" that humans are now succumbing too. That can be rectified, though. Louv shows that we can take a walk, hug a tree, visit a zoo, sit on our front porch - and be less lonely and part of our world.I found the book's organization to be difficult to read through (as noted by other reviewers); otherwise, I would have given this book a higher star rating.I would recommend this book to animal and wildlife lovers, or to readers who want to press the pause button on life - but not sure how.

[juju2cat · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book. It took a long time to read, not because it was difficult, but because there was so much to absorb! Fascinating stories about brief contacts with animals (even a pigeon) that open our eyes and heart. I will keep this book close to me if ever I feel like I'm losing my humanity!

[grammargoddess · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This nonfiction book describes our "species loneliness" as we've disconnected from our fellow animals and wrongly thought of ourselves as separate from nature, and it suggests ways in which we can start to remedy that and heal both the natural world and ourselves from that disconnection.It was kind of "preaching to the choir" in the sense summed up by this quote by writer Wendell Berry that he includes: "The standard of the exploiter is efficiency; the standard of the nurturer is to care. The exploiter's goal is money, profit; the nurturer's goal is health--his land's health, his own, his family's, his community's, his country's..." I have my doubts that proponents of exploiting and extracting from nature will read this book and change their thinking.I will say that I didn't really understand the way the book's themes and chapters were organized. It largely consists of a series of vignettes and personal stories/anecdotes the author has collected. If this were a work of fiction it would be called episodic or "picaresque." The vignettes are very vivid and moving, however.

[mckait · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Our Wild Calling by Richard Louv is a book that gave me hope. These days, in this political and environmental climate, it's easy to begin to lose hope. Every day we hear how the earth herself is dying due to our carelessness and it seems no one cares. We hear every week about another animal species that are on the brink of extinction. Worse, we see wealthy, soulless humans grinning beside a kill they have made where a wild, sometimes an endangered animal is trapped for them to kill. But there is hope. Studies show that humans are becoming more and more attuned to the needs of our animal relatives. In a very few places, bridges and tunnels are being created to allow animals to safely cross and recross urban danger zones, like highways. Believe it or not, this is sometimes helped by videos and photos posted on the internet, where animals are showing compassion to each other in times of need. We are becoming more educated in how animals, including birds, behave in their own communities. This book is a collection of information about some of the people who have made it their life work, whose passion, is protecting, understanding and educating others on the lives of our animal relatives. It gave me a little hope. From Zeelander to Bob Shemak, a Native American chaplain, and all of thee individuals, sanctuaries and refuges in between, we see hopee.

[kimaoverstreet · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A deeply philosophical take on the importance of man’s connectedness to nature, especially animals, Our Wild Calling is a combination of philosophy, history, literary references, some science, and anecdotes. I love the concept and really wanted to love the book, but found my mind wandering as I read. It would be a good text for a course on the subject where sections are pored over and discussed individually, but lacks readability for a less intense consumer.

[loisthelion · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book provides a wide look at humanity's relationship with the natural world, especially in relation to our connection with animals. The author is clearly deeply concerned by the increasing separation of many people from a natural environment and from meaningful interactions with animals in daily modern life. As someone who spends a lot of time outdoors and enjoys a sense of connection with the natural world, this ended up feeling a little bit like preaching to the choir. I imagine this could be a profoundly moving book for those who have an unexplored sense of disconnection from animals and the natural world. For those who are already concerned with and well informed on the issues of science, history, and culture that come into play, however, this book may not provide much new insight or depth of coverage simply because it is taking such a broad overview of the issues.