The Star in the Sycamore: Discovering Nature's Hidden Virtues in the Wild Nearby

For Tom Springer the usual four seasons cant begin to describe the mini-solstices of a Midwestern year: Does summer really begin on June 21? No the first ripe Michigan strawberries say summer to me ... just as a sumac that flames crimson in an August fencerow sends up the first semaphore flag of autumn. While these milestones arent measured by celestial reckoning learning to know and observe them can greatly enrich a life.The Star in the Sycamore takes readers on a journey of rare insight and local discovery. In the ecstasy of a dusk feeding frenzy Springer catches a slew of fat bass and toothsome pike in a little river gone wild in the city. In his love for country dogs un-pampered on their beds of barn straw he sees an ancient link to musky wild pleasures that fur babies will never know. In his quest to learn dozens of star constellations he reveals a striking connection between stars trees and souls.Along the way he meets people forever changed and healed by wildness. A combat soldier on a flight home whose agitated demeanor grows calm and joyful as he describes an upcoming leave in the north woods. A burned-out nonprofit executive who becomes a native plant herbalist to cure herself and then the bodies and psyches of others. Through it all Springer weaves humor grace and a luminous sense of the ordinary.