The Unequal Hours: Moments of Being in the Natural World

by Linda Underhill

After spending most of her life in the city, Linda Underhill moved to rural Allegany County, New York, in 1989 and observed a successful citizens' protest against a low-level nuclear waste dump near her home. Having always thought the environmental movement applied mainly to the wilderness, Underhill began writing to voice the essence of what her neighbors were trying to preserve in their own backyards.

Her essays describe elements of the natural wind, water, ice, fire, trees. The title essay concerns the "unequal hours" of the changing seasons, while other essays explore a nature preserve, a garden, backyard wildlife, and a hot air balloon ride. Deliberately choosing settings close to home, she shows that one does not have to go on a wilderness voyage to appreciate the natural world.

The Unequal Hours brings to our attention the sudden, intense experiences of reality that Virginia Woolf called "moments of being" by using the events of everyday life as a way to explore what the natural world means to ordinary people. Like the sudden moments of illumination in haiku, the "moments of being" Underhill describes are rooted in the ordinary, but they reveal the extraordinary.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This small collection of essays is a gem. A meditation on moments of being in nature, Linda Underhill speaks with a lyrical grace that is so calming. She finds meaning in aspects of all four elements of nature — earth, air, fire and water — amidst the understated rural beauty of western New York, whose small towns and agricultural landscape have (thankfully) escaped tourism. We ponder the beauty of backyard butterflies and birdsong, walk the family's wooded lot, explore a nature preserve with kids, sit beside a waterfall harnessed for industry, survive a car crash, and even take a balloon ride. Through it all, Underhill deftly connects local with universal, biological with spiritual. Who amongst us knows that a chickadee's miniscule brain annually grows new neurons to remember hidden caches of food? Enlightened by poets like Underhill, we don't have to retreat to wilderness to appreciate the natural world.

[Donna-Jo Webster · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely little volume of observations of life in rural Allegany County, New York, brimming with flowing, lyrical verse. Smell the pines, visit the farmer's market, watch the seasons change and be transformed. Absolutely gorgeous, almost calming book.