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Always Returning: The Wisdom of Place
Our spirits, our hearts, point to a fundamental and timeless wisdom--to a deeper awareness--and fortunately, Always Returning is an insightful and essential guide for all of us. The author points to her prairie roots to illuminate a universal story that we all will recognize. Learning to truly see what is all around us begins within, but we need frequent reminders that we are much more than current events, sensational headlines, endless drama, controversy and conflict, and interminable, often distracting, news bulletins. On a spiritual level, we are the open space of the prairies, the artistic stretch of silvery blues overhead. In many ways, we are even the curious dance of time.
Always Returning is a 15th anniversary edition (a second edition) of Where the Heart Resides: Timeless Wisdom of the American Prairie ('99, William Morrow).
Always Returning is a 15th anniversary edition (a second edition) of Where the Heart Resides: Timeless Wisdom of the American Prairie ('99, William Morrow).
260 pages, Paperback
First published October 20, 2014
4 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Daisy A. Hickman
4 books84 followersD.A. (Daisy) Hickman, an avid student of culture and society, writes to connect more deeply to the complexities of the human condition. Her new memoir, A Happy Truth: Last Dogs Aren't Always Last, is a heartwarming read filled with vivid scenes and lasting insights. "Loving them, letting them go, and then finding a way to begin anew, it all comes down to finding the courage to love again. Opening the door to discovery and joy is the secret."
Hickman's 2015 memoir, The Silence of Morning: A Memoir of Time Undone, followed a first book from William Morrow about growing up "prairie-wise" (Always Returning: The Wisdom of Place, second edition, 2014). Also a poet, Hickman published Ancients of the Earth: Poems of Time in 2017. "Too often," she notes, "we manage to give our lives to time, but most would agree, it's the wrong emphasis." For Richard Gilbert’s in-depth interview with the author, see "We Need Memoir" at http://richardgilbert.me/we-need-memoir/. Hickman studied sociology (M.S.) at Iowa State University, legal studies (B.A.) at Stephens College. For book updates, visit her website, a sunny, creative space for kindred spirits, at SunnyRoomStudio.com. At work on new poetry, Hickman lives with her husband and spirited schnauzers, Hannah and Georgia.
Hickman's 2015 memoir, The Silence of Morning: A Memoir of Time Undone, followed a first book from William Morrow about growing up "prairie-wise" (Always Returning: The Wisdom of Place, second edition, 2014). Also a poet, Hickman published Ancients of the Earth: Poems of Time in 2017. "Too often," she notes, "we manage to give our lives to time, but most would agree, it's the wrong emphasis." For Richard Gilbert’s in-depth interview with the author, see "We Need Memoir" at http://richardgilbert.me/we-need-memoir/. Hickman studied sociology (M.S.) at Iowa State University, legal studies (B.A.) at Stephens College. For book updates, visit her website, a sunny, creative space for kindred spirits, at SunnyRoomStudio.com. At work on new poetry, Hickman lives with her husband and spirited schnauzers, Hannah and Georgia.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 10, 2014
The profundity of place is brought to the forefront in Daisy Hickman’s 15th anniversary edition of, ALWAYS RETURNING: THE WISDOM OF PLACE. A woman who wears the prairie in her heart, Daisy’s soul-wise message is universal:
“Wherever you find yourself, the most important thing is to be there fully.”
Throughout each chapter I found myself pausing to peel back layers and look inward, and as Daisy suggested, “be willing to know yourself more deeply.”
Using both current day and historic examples throughout the book, Daisy helps her readers look forward. One of my favorite passages is when she encourages:
“There is no covered wagon for us to travel in, but there is new, unexplored territory just ahead. Let us remain open to learning, hopeful about our future, dedicated to the challenges of our time. Hopefully, the pioneer spirit will begin to resonate within you as we chart our course, as steep and arduous as each step may be, for there is no turning back.”
ALWAYS RETURNING: THE WISDOM OF PLACE is a global guidepost filled with inspiration and prairie wisdom for people everywhere.
“Wherever you find yourself, the most important thing is to be there fully.”
Throughout each chapter I found myself pausing to peel back layers and look inward, and as Daisy suggested, “be willing to know yourself more deeply.”
Using both current day and historic examples throughout the book, Daisy helps her readers look forward. One of my favorite passages is when she encourages:
“There is no covered wagon for us to travel in, but there is new, unexplored territory just ahead. Let us remain open to learning, hopeful about our future, dedicated to the challenges of our time. Hopefully, the pioneer spirit will begin to resonate within you as we chart our course, as steep and arduous as each step may be, for there is no turning back.”
ALWAYS RETURNING: THE WISDOM OF PLACE is a global guidepost filled with inspiration and prairie wisdom for people everywhere.
December 23, 2014
This book needs to be savored like a hot toddy during a prairie snow storm. It will warm you from the inside out. If you enjoy writers like Eckhart Tolle, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman, you will resonate deeply with this book. The author Daisy Hickman takes her experience of growing up on the South Dakota prairie and retuning there again in her adulthood to call all of us to learn from "prairie wisdom." She weaves together interviews, diaries, articles, and books about the prairie to create a new tapestry not found in any other book.
What are some of the virtues you will revisit? Honesty, freedom, beauty, boundlessness, paradox, frugality, generosity, and story telling. If these appeal to you, buy the book and you will find a kindred spirit in this author, whether you have ever set foot on the prairie or not.
The passages in this book that focus on concrete detail are the very best parts. There are no footnotes. All quotes from other books are included within the text itself.
Here's a sentence that reminded me of Willa Cather, another poet of the prairie. Those who know me, know that a comparison to Cather is my highest form of praise: "Almost leisurely, the sun appears to be setting --the western sky, artistic stretches of amber and peach -- and the air is warm, at least eighty degrees, with a slight June breeze, cattle and horses graze in a nearby pasture and a few meadowlarks chime in, their melodic call familiar, comforting. . . .Like mounds of fall leaves, the grasses silently welcome, offering beauty, natural strength, composure, certainty."
What are some of the virtues you will revisit? Honesty, freedom, beauty, boundlessness, paradox, frugality, generosity, and story telling. If these appeal to you, buy the book and you will find a kindred spirit in this author, whether you have ever set foot on the prairie or not.
The passages in this book that focus on concrete detail are the very best parts. There are no footnotes. All quotes from other books are included within the text itself.
Here's a sentence that reminded me of Willa Cather, another poet of the prairie. Those who know me, know that a comparison to Cather is my highest form of praise: "Almost leisurely, the sun appears to be setting --the western sky, artistic stretches of amber and peach -- and the air is warm, at least eighty degrees, with a slight June breeze, cattle and horses graze in a nearby pasture and a few meadowlarks chime in, their melodic call familiar, comforting. . . .Like mounds of fall leaves, the grasses silently welcome, offering beauty, natural strength, composure, certainty."
November 13, 2014
In this wise and beautifully written book, Daisy Hickman shows us the value of the prairie and the inestimable wisdom that comes from its people and its wide open spaces.
As she writes in the preface, “we need something (time and time again) to draw us inward. A place or a situation, an event or a message; a piece of art, a book, a poem, a song, a memory. An intuitive knowing. An open landscape that silently tugs at the senses—at the soul.” Always Returning: The Wisdom of Place does just this, draws us inward and tugs at the soul.
Prairie wisdom is “about learning to look, really look, at life in a way that spotlights the inconsequential, peers under and below the shiny, glittery surface of things, delves into the dusty corners and invisible crevices in an effort to understand the truth of the matter, the heart of the matter.” “To become prairie wise,” Hickman tells us, “you must be willing to know yourself more deeply; you must be concerned about emotional, intellectual, and spiritual survival in today’s somewhat wearisome world.”
And what exactly is the multifaceted wisdom that makes up the bulk of the book? Among the most important is that doing less paves the way for doing more, and that doing nothing is an art form that requires practice and patience. The prairie will not insulate you from yourself, Hickman tell us, but will bring out your strengths and weaknesses. And the prairie is not a nirvana—it helps show us that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps the greatest gift of all is that the prairie is a place that rarely allows us to settle for less than we are capable of being and becoming.
Like all good books, Always Returning poses crucial questions to which there are no easy answers. As Hickman notes, the puzzle of the millennium is how to achieve true progress without losing sight of our humanity. At the end she reminds us that we are still pioneers, searching for ways to survive in an increasingly challenging environment, seeking our hearts in a world that emphasizes the material plane of existence.
At its core, the book is a roadmap to the heart, for “when we are attentive, genuinely aware, and deeply in touch with our surroundings, we can draw an organic kind of wisdom from our surroundings.” And not just from the prairie, but from wherever we find ourselves on this imperiled planet. Always Returning strikes a hopeful chord among the dirges that foretell the end of the world as we know it, and it’s for that reason, among several others, that it should be celebrated and cherished, not unlike the simple prairie wisdom that forms the basis of its heartfelt appeal.
As she writes in the preface, “we need something (time and time again) to draw us inward. A place or a situation, an event or a message; a piece of art, a book, a poem, a song, a memory. An intuitive knowing. An open landscape that silently tugs at the senses—at the soul.” Always Returning: The Wisdom of Place does just this, draws us inward and tugs at the soul.
Prairie wisdom is “about learning to look, really look, at life in a way that spotlights the inconsequential, peers under and below the shiny, glittery surface of things, delves into the dusty corners and invisible crevices in an effort to understand the truth of the matter, the heart of the matter.” “To become prairie wise,” Hickman tells us, “you must be willing to know yourself more deeply; you must be concerned about emotional, intellectual, and spiritual survival in today’s somewhat wearisome world.”
And what exactly is the multifaceted wisdom that makes up the bulk of the book? Among the most important is that doing less paves the way for doing more, and that doing nothing is an art form that requires practice and patience. The prairie will not insulate you from yourself, Hickman tell us, but will bring out your strengths and weaknesses. And the prairie is not a nirvana—it helps show us that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps the greatest gift of all is that the prairie is a place that rarely allows us to settle for less than we are capable of being and becoming.
Like all good books, Always Returning poses crucial questions to which there are no easy answers. As Hickman notes, the puzzle of the millennium is how to achieve true progress without losing sight of our humanity. At the end she reminds us that we are still pioneers, searching for ways to survive in an increasingly challenging environment, seeking our hearts in a world that emphasizes the material plane of existence.
At its core, the book is a roadmap to the heart, for “when we are attentive, genuinely aware, and deeply in touch with our surroundings, we can draw an organic kind of wisdom from our surroundings.” And not just from the prairie, but from wherever we find ourselves on this imperiled planet. Always Returning strikes a hopeful chord among the dirges that foretell the end of the world as we know it, and it’s for that reason, among several others, that it should be celebrated and cherished, not unlike the simple prairie wisdom that forms the basis of its heartfelt appeal.
April 16, 2015
A beautifully written spiritual guide for self-exploration.
The author conveys a simple calm as she paints a gorgeous picturesque parallel between earth from her physical point on the map and the makings of our individuality. The prairie of South Dakota represents the macrocosm for the spiritual self. The images and lessons are brilliantly simple yet, complex.
It is not a book to be read cover to cover, but one to rest on your nightstand to be read and contemplated one chapter at a time. An uncomplicated explanation might be "mindful living" taking notice of our surroundings in order to find greater understanding.
"But how, you may ask can doing nothing be considered an art?...
Successfully doing nothing is a true art form because it requires us to dig in-study our lifestyles,evaluate priorities, consult our hearts and souls, evaluate our minds, discipline our well-worn habits, adopt new and novel ways of thinking, contain (and hopefully understand) our weaknesses... "
Each chapter explores a different aspect of prairie life and the mirror inside of us. A quote at the beginning of each chapter sets the tone. I have to say in a way I envy the simple life and the satisfaction the author has found in her home, neighbors, and family on the prairie. I see, even feel the parallels and am changed just a bit having read her lovely book.
Ms. Hickman is knowledgeable and educated both formally and informally and I think it would be fair to say that she in the strongest sense is a lifelong student of not only the prairie, but of spirituality and sociology.
The author conveys a simple calm as she paints a gorgeous picturesque parallel between earth from her physical point on the map and the makings of our individuality. The prairie of South Dakota represents the macrocosm for the spiritual self. The images and lessons are brilliantly simple yet, complex.
It is not a book to be read cover to cover, but one to rest on your nightstand to be read and contemplated one chapter at a time. An uncomplicated explanation might be "mindful living" taking notice of our surroundings in order to find greater understanding.
"But how, you may ask can doing nothing be considered an art?...
Successfully doing nothing is a true art form because it requires us to dig in-study our lifestyles,evaluate priorities, consult our hearts and souls, evaluate our minds, discipline our well-worn habits, adopt new and novel ways of thinking, contain (and hopefully understand) our weaknesses... "
Each chapter explores a different aspect of prairie life and the mirror inside of us. A quote at the beginning of each chapter sets the tone. I have to say in a way I envy the simple life and the satisfaction the author has found in her home, neighbors, and family on the prairie. I see, even feel the parallels and am changed just a bit having read her lovely book.
Ms. Hickman is knowledgeable and educated both formally and informally and I think it would be fair to say that she in the strongest sense is a lifelong student of not only the prairie, but of spirituality and sociology.
December 11, 2014
When D.A. Hickman published Where the Heart Resides: Timeless Wisdom of the American Prairie in 1999, she likely did not expect another edition or similar book.
However, as Hickman writes on Goodreads, much had happened when she returned to South Dakota and the prairie in 2008. This return to roots, to culture and lifestyle on the prairie, evidently sparked a hunger to not only revisit her own inner wisdom but to invite and carry her readers along with her.
With this 15th Anniversary Edition, a new title, and a new preface, I decided to join Hickman and never looked back after the first page.
My copy of Hickman's Always Returning had just arrived when a trip to the ER with my husband was necessary. I hadn't started the book then and snatched it up as we went out the door. As I waited to learn what was wrong with my dear husband, I began reading. I cannot explain the sense of peace and comfort that washed over me. The writing style is lyrical and provides a seemingly endless look at the prairie, a place no doubt representative to even us city girls when we think of a simpler life.
The view of the prairie is for any reader--city dweller, in the Dakotas, Georgia, New York, New England, or Colorado. Perhaps in a foreign land, military installations, senior or retired living facilities. Or maybe you still live at home with your folks. Perhaps you are among our country's homeless or unemployed and someone has handed you a copy. Hickman's book is for all of you.
Read the rest here ...
However, as Hickman writes on Goodreads, much had happened when she returned to South Dakota and the prairie in 2008. This return to roots, to culture and lifestyle on the prairie, evidently sparked a hunger to not only revisit her own inner wisdom but to invite and carry her readers along with her.
With this 15th Anniversary Edition, a new title, and a new preface, I decided to join Hickman and never looked back after the first page.
My copy of Hickman's Always Returning had just arrived when a trip to the ER with my husband was necessary. I hadn't started the book then and snatched it up as we went out the door. As I waited to learn what was wrong with my dear husband, I began reading. I cannot explain the sense of peace and comfort that washed over me. The writing style is lyrical and provides a seemingly endless look at the prairie, a place no doubt representative to even us city girls when we think of a simpler life.
The view of the prairie is for any reader--city dweller, in the Dakotas, Georgia, New York, New England, or Colorado. Perhaps in a foreign land, military installations, senior or retired living facilities. Or maybe you still live at home with your folks. Perhaps you are among our country's homeless or unemployed and someone has handed you a copy. Hickman's book is for all of you.
Read the rest here ...
June 28, 2015
In Always Returning: The Wisdom of Place, Daisy Hickman pulls us away from the chaos and distraction of daily life and into a place of quiet reflection about the search for simplicity. She shares the love of her roots, the South Dakota prairie which she has returned to as an adult and guides us through her “prairie wisdoms”, weaving together interviews, diaries, quotes from other prairie authors to paint a picturesque and captivating vision of prairie life. Her beautifully written descriptions make one long for the simplicity of prairie life. But she also explores the hardships—severe weather, loneliness, disease:
“The place itself, the prairie and its culture, speaks softly, whisperlike at times, so it can be difficult to capture its essence. Glorious,yes. Splendid and breathtaking, as well. But also stark, expansive, surreal.”
Each chapter is devoted to a different prairie wisdom that can apply universally to anyone whether or not you know the prairie. In learning how the prairie shaped her and “seeped into her heart”, the reader can’t help but relate to how place has shaped them. I was brought up near the Adirondack Mountains and can sense the same connection to the mountains as Daisy has with the prairie. Her writing is lyrical and meditative; simple but provocative of more challenging questions about self-discovery and spiritual journeys. This is not a book to rush through. I read it slowly and savored the wisdom and beauty of her words and message of returning to the place you call home. I highly recommend it.
“The place itself, the prairie and its culture, speaks softly, whisperlike at times, so it can be difficult to capture its essence. Glorious,yes. Splendid and breathtaking, as well. But also stark, expansive, surreal.”
Each chapter is devoted to a different prairie wisdom that can apply universally to anyone whether or not you know the prairie. In learning how the prairie shaped her and “seeped into her heart”, the reader can’t help but relate to how place has shaped them. I was brought up near the Adirondack Mountains and can sense the same connection to the mountains as Daisy has with the prairie. Her writing is lyrical and meditative; simple but provocative of more challenging questions about self-discovery and spiritual journeys. This is not a book to rush through. I read it slowly and savored the wisdom and beauty of her words and message of returning to the place you call home. I highly recommend it.
January 7, 2015
Always Returning, The Wisdom of Place is a book you don't read hurriedly. It demands that you pause, look out and see where you are in this world. It demands that you pause to explore inside and consider who you are in this world. And most importantly it guides you to connect what you discover in those reflective moments. It encourages you to trust to that innate wisdom so often obscured by busy lives and modern noise you’re surrounded by.
This is book I’ll return to, to read places I’ve marked. So it will be on my desk or at my bedside for a while.
This is book I’ll return to, to read places I’ve marked. So it will be on my desk or at my bedside for a while.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews