Tag Archives: Canadian writers

Anniversary edition of The Sacred Balance

The Sacred Balance, 25th anniversary edition

The Sacred Balance, 25th anniversary edition

The 25th anniversary edition of The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature by David Suzuki has just been released. I have a small part in this book as I helped edit the third edition back in 2007. (See my name in small print?) I received my updated edition a few weeks ago and I was most excited to see that Robin Wall Kimmerer, who wrote the stellar Braiding Sweetgrass and the less-well-know but also wonderful Gathering Moss, wrote the foreword.

She writes: “Adaptation, the ability to change in such a way that enhances survival and flourishing, occurs not only in the resilience of an individual, but within populations over time. Accumulated changes that increase fitness in a changing world are encoded in genetic libraries and manifest in altered structures, functions and behaviours. Suzuki suggests that restoring the sacred to our our relationship with nature may be the most important adaptation we can make. Here, I think, is the most vital message he carries: that spiritual beliefs and practices, encoded in a worldview, are of immense adaptive value.”

Vancouver Writers Fest

Vancouver Writers Fest

Rochelle, Johanna, and me on stage with our books.

Over the years I’ve attended the Vancouver Writers Festival (even back when I’m pretty sure it was called the Vancouver Writers and Readers Festival), but this year was the first time I’ve been invited to be on stage. I joined fellow writers Rochelle Strauss (with her new book, The Global Ocean) and Johanna Wagstaffe (with her new book, Little Pine Cone) for the event, Oceans and Forests. We chatted to a very excited and energetic audience of young readers—Rochelle and I chatted about the ocean, with my talk being more focussed on the wonders of whale poo and all. Johanna, who is also a meteorologist (you may have seen her on CBC?) had the forest covered and talked about how wildfires affect the natural world in good ways (when we get out of the way) and not so (when we don’t).

Jude Isabella and me showing off our hard work.

It was a very fun event and we were all buoyed by the enthusiasm of the kids. I only wished we’d stopped talking earlier so we could have answered more of the students’ questions. As it was I think we went over our time by about 30 minutes. Although the audience was mostly students and their teachers, I did have my own little cheering squad of my sister, husband, and two dear friends, including Jude Isabella, author of Bringing Back the Wolves, the first title in Kids Can Press’s Ecosystem Guardians series. (Whales to the Rescue is the second.) We took a moment to show off our books in front of the VWF poster.