Our Wild Calling

by Richard Louv

How Connecting with Animals can Transform Our Lives - and Save Theirs

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.  Encounters with other animals can happen in a flash or over time, in wilderness or in the city.   Our Wild Calling explores the powerful and mysterious bonds we share with all living creatures, and how strengthening them can transform our mental, physical, and spiritual lives, serve as an antidote to the growing epidemic of human loneliness - as individuals and as a species - and help us tap into the empathy required to preserve life on Earth.

Our Wild Calling is a blend of reportage, personal stories, and cutting-edge science.  Louv spent four years talking with 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.

In today's Anthropocene epoch, we are threatened by environmental disruption and neglect.  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.  This is what Louv calls the "habitat of the heart."  Transformative and inspiring, this book points us toward what we all long for in the age of technology: real connection.