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Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World
by
Whether she is writing about bats, bees, procupines, or wolves, contemplating the mysteries of caves, or delving into the traditions, beliefs, and myths of Native American cultures, Linda Hogan expresses a deep reverence for the dwelling we all share--the Earth. 16 line drawings.
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Paperback, 160 pages
Published
September 17th 1996
by Touchstone Books
(first published 1995)
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Start your review of Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World
I just finished reading this book, which is so beautifully and gracefully written. Linda Hogan's prose is indeed filled with poetic language, in which she reminds us of our connectedness to the natural world, of the natural world's connectedness to the spiritual and mythic world, and that every action, however small and insignificant to us, has the most profound effect on others. So here, not only are we humans and animals alive; the mountains, the trees, the water are also alive, and contain me
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One of the best sets of essays I have ever read. Hogan uses tremendous imagery here, just like in her poetry. I especially loved the essay on bats.
...they live with the goddess of night in the lusty mouth of earth...
...bending over the stone, smelling the earth up close, we drank sky off the surface of water...
...they live with the goddess of night in the lusty mouth of earth...
...bending over the stone, smelling the earth up close, we drank sky off the surface of water...
As far as I'm concerned, this book is perfect.
"Drinking the water, I thought how earth and sky are generous with their gifts, and how good it is to receive them. Most of us are taught, somehow, about giving and accepting human gifts, but not about opening ourselves and our bodies to welcome the sun, the land, the visions of sky and dreaming, not about standing in the rain ecastatic with what is offered."
"Drinking the water, I thought how earth and sky are generous with their gifts, and how good it is to receive them. Most of us are taught, somehow, about giving and accepting human gifts, but not about opening ourselves and our bodies to welcome the sun, the land, the visions of sky and dreaming, not about standing in the rain ecastatic with what is offered."
Some of these essays touched me, prodded me, lifted and soothed and strengthened me more than others. They are all good. "The Kill Hole" is my favorite. I shared "A Different Yield" with my students.
A brief passage from a chapter about working in a raptor rehabilitation center: "The most difficult task the birds demand is that we learn to be equal to them, t feel our way into an intelligence that i different from our own. A fiend, awed at the thought of working with eagles, said, 'Imagine knowin ...more
A brief passage from a chapter about working in a raptor rehabilitation center: "The most difficult task the birds demand is that we learn to be equal to them, t feel our way into an intelligence that i different from our own. A fiend, awed at the thought of working with eagles, said, 'Imagine knowin ...more
Beautiful, simply beautiful! Hogan's reflections on nature are part prose, part poetry. I will be re-visiting this book again.
Quiet, beautiful, and hopeful. If I had my own copy, I would have dog-eared so many pages.
Other random thoughts:
-It takes a very special person (and the best kind of nature-lover) to write as beautifully and lovingly about a trail of maggots leaving a dead porcupine as of an eagle soaring through the air.
-I want to read everything Linda Hogan has ever written now.
-I was so excited by the story she told about Naomi Shihab Nye, because I also love Naomi Shihab Nye's work, and OF COURSE THEY ARE F ...more
Other random thoughts:
-It takes a very special person (and the best kind of nature-lover) to write as beautifully and lovingly about a trail of maggots leaving a dead porcupine as of an eagle soaring through the air.
-I want to read everything Linda Hogan has ever written now.
-I was so excited by the story she told about Naomi Shihab Nye, because I also love Naomi Shihab Nye's work, and OF COURSE THEY ARE F ...more
I enjoyed her voice and many of her descriptions, and I think I will look at some of her other writing. But I failed to detect any narrative thread or dramatic arc within or across the essays. After about halfway through, the lack of cohesion, tension or progression made reading this book rather boring and tedious. Rather than a "spiritual history," this was an assortment of individual chapters containing observations and musings which had been previously published, later gathered hastily into t
...more
While I enjoyed the perspectives and quotable sentiments in this collection of essays, it lacked cohesiveness for me - both within the individual essays and as a collective. Towards the end of the book, especially, the writing appeared to be more random observations than pointing the reader to specific conclusions. Perhaps it was too subtle for me, but I would have preferred knowing what Hogan was driving at with the random ideas she shared.
A thoughtful and inspiring series of essays, digging into the foundations of the relationship between humans, other living creatures and the land. It was thrilling to see a skillful writer use Native American experiences and concepts to show how we can rethink our relationship to "nature" without preaching. Show, not tell. Do, not preach.
"Our work is our altar." That line resonated so much for me, and it put the book into focus for me. The dwellings in this prose-poem are all the sacred places where humans meet others dwelling in this space. Sometimes in peace, sometimes not.
Quiet, short musings with elements of memoir and insight...a reverential walk down a dusty path with a friend.
Quiet, short musings with elements of memoir and insight...a reverential walk down a dusty path with a friend.
I have never felt this connection with Earth. I picked it randomly and i couldn’t really understand its significance at first but as i went on, it turned out to be a beautiful ride. Worth revisiting every now and then
An utterly profound exploration of the natural and spiritual world by indigenous author Linda Hogan. The last sentence of this book is simply the Best: “You are the result of the love of thousands.“ YES.
Beautiful. So important to view the world through this perspective. Life and death are intertwined; humans can be both the destroyers and the healers. We all need to watch, listen, and feel more. Very quick read (finished in two sittings).
This book is one of my go-to pieces for reconnecting to earth and nature. I read and re-read it, memorize passages, recite portions like mantras. I love this book so much.
One of the most wonderful books I have ever read.
I will probably read this book over and over again throughout the course of my life because it is so incredibly beautiful.
Beautiful, poetic, inspiring...
25 year wife of WWE wrestler Hulk Hogan.
"We must wonder what value can ever be spoken from lives that are lived outside of life, without a love or respect for the land and other lives."
Beautifully written!
A beautiful and poetically written book on the importance of human connection with the earth.
I loved every word.
Oct 25, 2020
Karin Zirk
added it
This is a philosophy book written in the language of poetry. It not only helps us understand the natural world and our relationship to it, but it creates that relationship.
Enchanting! I didn’t realize the publication date until one small statement about California condors. It really stands the test of time as a dedication of love to nature!
"You are the result of the love of thousands."
It's hard to review this book, but I'm just going to note that Linda Hogan really made me think differently about wolves, bats and snakes and I want to thank her for that.
Sounds at the Edge of Our Lives
How do we communicate the importance of the relationship between people and the earth? How do we acknowledge that all things are connected and destruction of or disconnection with any one part harms all of the others? Chickasaw poet Linda Hogan ponders these questions in her work Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World. But she finds a way, as she uses metaphor to make the connections where language fails.
“What we are really searching for is a language t ...more
How do we communicate the importance of the relationship between people and the earth? How do we acknowledge that all things are connected and destruction of or disconnection with any one part harms all of the others? Chickasaw poet Linda Hogan ponders these questions in her work Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World. But she finds a way, as she uses metaphor to make the connections where language fails.
“What we are really searching for is a language t ...more
Poet and novelist Hogan, a member of the Chickasaw tribe, writes of the spirituality inherent in the natural world. Her insights into the relationships between living creatures and our own souls is anchored in places and in specific experiences—with hot springs in a cave, or at work at a bird sanctuary. She doesn’t write about animals in general or earth in general, but this piece of earth, this particular sunflower, this colony of mud-building bees. When she cites other writers, often scientist
...more
Dwellings is a deep piece of wisdom literature I’ll return to again and again for its reflections will widen and shift the lens upon every new life stage and major transition I experience. Hogan conveys a reverent appreciation for the Earth and all the Earth has given birth to, has nourished, and has reclaimed. Her prose illustrates, with great beauty, the deep, spiritual tie all living creatures have with the Earth, and what results is a reading experience that is both meditative and emotive. D
...more
wonderful book of reminiscences from a native American writer. full of connecting with nature and being embedded in it.She writes:"Still wanting a place of our own, a place set aside from the rest of the creation, now it is being ventured that maybe our ability to make fire separates us, or perhaps the desire to seek revenge. But no matter what direction the quest for separation might take, there has been a narrowing down of the difference between species, and we are forced to ask ourselves once
...more
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Readers also enjoyed
Linda K. Hogan (born 1947 Denver) is a Native American poet, storyteller, academic, playwright, novelist, environmentalist and writer of short stories. She is currently the Chickasaw Nation's Writer in Residence.
Linda Hogan is Chickasaw. Her father is a Chickasaw from a recognized historical family and Linda's uncle, Wesley Henderson, helped form the White Buffalo Council in Denver during the 1950 ...more
Linda Hogan is Chickasaw. Her father is a Chickasaw from a recognized historical family and Linda's uncle, Wesley Henderson, helped form the White Buffalo Council in Denver during the 1950 ...more
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“Walking, I can almost hear the redwoods beating. And the oceans are above me here, rolling clouds, heavy and dark. It is winter and there is smoke from the fires. It is a world of elemental attention, of all things working together, listening to what speaks in the blood. Whichever road I follow, I walk in the land of many gods, and they love and eat one another. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.”
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“John Hay, in The Immortal Wilderness, has written: 'There are occasions when you can hear the mysterious language of the Earth, in water, or coming through the trees, emanating from the mosses, seeping through the undercurrents of the soil, but you have to be willing to wait and receive.' Sometimes I hear it talking. The light of the sunflower was one language, but there are others more audible. Once, in the redwood forest, I heard a beat, something like a drum or a heart coming from the ground and trees and wind. That underground current stirred a kind of knowing inside me, a kinship and longing, a dream barely remembered that disappeared back to the body....
Tonight, I walk. I am watching the sky. I think of the people who came before me and how they knew the placement of the stars in the sky, watching the moving sun long and hard enough to witness how a certain angle of light touched a stone only once a year. Without written records, they knew the gods of every night, the small, fine details of the world around them and the immensity above them.
Walking, I can almost hear the redwoods beating....It is a world of elemental attention, of all things working together, listening to what speaks in the blood. Whichever road I follow, I walk in the land of many gods, and they love and eat one another. Walking, I am listening to a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.”
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22 likes
More quotes…
Tonight, I walk. I am watching the sky. I think of the people who came before me and how they knew the placement of the stars in the sky, watching the moving sun long and hard enough to witness how a certain angle of light touched a stone only once a year. Without written records, they knew the gods of every night, the small, fine details of the world around them and the immensity above them.
Walking, I can almost hear the redwoods beating....It is a world of elemental attention, of all things working together, listening to what speaks in the blood. Whichever road I follow, I walk in the land of many gods, and they love and eat one another. Walking, I am listening to a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.”
