SOMETHING IN THE WOODS LOVES YOU, JAROD K. ANDERSON
Jennifer Jewell
Creator-Host Cultivating Place: Natural History & The Human Impulse to Garden, a public radio progr at Cultivating Place
Jarod K. Anderson is a poet and nature enthusiast - his book, Something in the Woods Loves You– “the story of the darkest stretch of a person’s life, and how deliberate and meditative encounters with plants and animals helped him see the light at every turn,” shares how the more-than-human lives around him were among Jarod's primary allies against chronic depression.
One day in his mid-adulthood, after many years of battling debilitating depression and thoughts of suicide, Jarod witnessed the presence of a Great Blue Heron fishing in a creek in the woods near his home. In the opening pages of his new book, he describes this transformative moment of meeting this “poem of ancient slowness” as a “bridge to when nature was family.”?And this sense of belonging allowed his first step on a path to seeking and accepting help in his deeply personal journey to healing.
Jarod is also the poet and nature enthusiast behind the popular scripted fiction podcast The CryptoNaturalist - about real love for imaginary nature.?In Something in the Woods Loves You?(out this week from Hachette), Jarod poignantly shares how real nature, and its lessons as to our place within it, helped to bring him home to himself.
Jarod joins Cultivating Place this week to share more about his love of nature, his garden life, and thoughts on how an improved relationship with nature is key to everyone’s health (mental and physical), including the health of the planet we live on and her nature.
Enjoy!
You can follow Jarod's work online at:
And on Instagram:
@jarodkanderson
All photos by and courtesy of Jarod K. Anderson, all rights reserved.?