The Stations of Still Creek

by Barbara J. Scot

The Stations of Still Creek is the tale of a woman's personal journey and the healing inspiration she finds in the natural settings surrounding her. In a quest for personal and creative truth, Barbara Scot moves to her country cabin at Still Creek, in a National Forest preserve in the shadow of Mount Hood, to be still and thoughtful, in spite of the turmoil of a strained marriage.
Scot takes us on a spiritual journey incorporating seven inspiring natural formations - the Stations of Still The Old Growth Sculpture; The Burned-Out Cedar Snag; The Towering Maples; The Red Roots Station; The Four Alders with Perfect Posture; Maiden-Hair Fern Point; and The Green Cathedral.
Observing the stations over time, Scot experiences a rebirth--a letting go of past disappointments. Her deep communion with nature and attachment to the Stations are at the heart of her journey. Beautifully written and rich with natural detail, The Stations of Still Creek examines issues that many women (and men) are facing the compromises in a marriage, the breakdown of one's own body; the death of friends; and the choices everyone must make in a lifetime.

Genres: Natural History, Autobiography

204 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

Reviews

[Phair · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my paper journal I noted that this book was "not fantastic, but good. Very soothing" It did prompt me to transcribe almost 4 pages of interesting passages that I wanted to remember. A woman in her mid 50s is in a midlife crisis and decides she needs time away from her emotionally unsatisfying marriage and her own talky/sharing lifestyle to practice stillness to reassess her life and her place in it. She also feels the need to come to terms with her own eventual mortality. She removes herself to a remote cabin in a National Forest. The author provides many quotes from various authors that helped in her seeking. Loved the sense of nature.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this book a long time, been meaning to read it right away for a long while, finally I did and now slightly disappointed. The writing style was okay, with some good descriptive scenes of nature.

The book was about Scot's time in living apart from her husband in a cabin in the Mount Hood National Forest. They owned this cabin for years, and she moved in one day to figure things out: her marriage, her writing, and contemplate death. Also, to heal physically as she had problems with her back and eye. Scot was a teacher and quit several times but kept going back as they needed money. It was her husband’s time to quit work for a while, instead she quit work again and went to the forest. They really don’t talk about important things.

What bothered me the most is how she approached nature. It was there for her, for personal use. When she described how she developed these stations, these places in the forest for her to stop and just sit, they were highlighted on how she fit in there. She tended to them, she created them and the paths by cutting out a lot, it is not nature as it is, but human involved. At least she would stop and just look and be.

Scot says that her goal after being healed was using her privileged time in the Mount Hood Forest to be an example of how nature can heal psychologically when you stop and just not do anything, not-doing.


Book rating: 3.75 stars

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely writing about being in nature.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

"'The year I turned fifty-four,' writes Barbara J. Scott, 'my stations at Still Creek emerged. It began like this: For two days I thought my husband was dead.'

"Scot and her husband, Jim, have climbed many mountains together, and for her, mountain climbing has become the metaphor that defines their long marriage. The shock of Jim's brush with death in the H8imalayas releases a deep need in Scot to reexamine her own life's direction, both as an individual and in her marriage. Because the physical limitations of middle age are making themselves felt, she wonders how much time is left to her for teaching, writing, travel, climbing.

"Seeking to gather what she terms her 'scattered slef,' Scot retreats alone to a cabin deep in Oregon's Mount Hood National Forest. As she explores the forest, she encounters a series of special and beautiful places that she comes to call her 'statioons' -- places where she experiences a remarkable senseation of completge merging with the natural world. As the seasons come and go, Scot names her seven stations -- Old Growth Sculpture, the Green Cathedral, Four Alders with Perfect Posture -- and makes a profound ritual of visiti8ng them one by one, over and over again. In this ritual, at last she finds the deep stillness in which she can contemplate aging and death, mountains and marriage.

"Scot's story is a moving chronicle of one woman's longing to express her i8nnermost self and to find her place within the creative cycles of nature. It is also an eloquent plea for the preser45vation of more places where people can experience the beauty and healing power of the natural world."
~~front flap

An exquisite book, with the ebb and flow of the seasons, mirroring the ebbs and flows of the author's personal journey of inner exploration.

[Melody · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an interesting memoir set in a place I'm very familiar with. I found the authorial voice decidedly odd, and her description of a 20-odd year marriage in which neither partner ever talked about anything important, odder still. She moves out of the house and into a cabin for a year and they never actually talk about this, which I still can't wrap my head around. There's a lot of navel-gazing wrapped in pretty nature, and lots of mortality-contemplating. It all left me somewhat bewildered and bemused, but I was interested enough to finish it. 2.5

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am quite picky about what books I pick up to read as my list is long and my time is short. I am sorry this one sloped through my elimination process. I only got through about half of the book. I was looking for something like Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek but this woman's self absorption didn't offer me those kinds of nature insights.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scot spends a good part of a year at a cabin near Mt. Hood, "doing nothing." She takes copious notes about her experience of stillness. This book is the result. I didn't particularly relate to her method or conclusions about her mid-life crisis. However, it was well written and quite interesting.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting ideas.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

set on Mt. Hood, her story of finding herself in nature. I like her writing style