Bring Me the Ocean: Nature as Teacher, Messenger, and Intermediary [Hardcover]

Rebecca A. Reynolds (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 25, 1995

True stories about a program called Animals As Intermediaries that uses nature to help troubled or isolated individuals

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Rebecca Reynolds brings nature to the elderly, the infirm, and the imprisoned. Her "Animals as Intermediaries" program travels to hospitals and other closed-care institutions. Bring Me the Ocean collects her wonderful vignettes of how these small brushes with the natural world restore patients with a sense of mystery and wellbeing. A boy with cerebral palsy feels a rapport with an injured owl. An adolescent girl finally speaks while playing with a dog. Working with farm and companion animals and permanently injured wildlife, the program also re-creates natural environments in hospital rooms and prison libraries. Bring Me the Ocean has been known to bring autumn meadows, winter marshes and forests indoors. These stories are proof of the healing power of the natural world. Photographs of the outdoors, the animals and people accompany the text.

From Booklist

Reynolds' poignant essays document the Animals as Intermediaries program. Started by Reynolds' mother and her partner, Nancy Mattila, the program strives to bring nature into contained environments--in classrooms, jails, nursing homes, and other specialized living and learning centers--to enrich the lives of learning and emotionally disabled students and people of all ages. Reynolds' essays, highlighted by photographs, share the healing gifts evoked by a segment of meadow or the sight, texture, and smell of the ocean. The program leaders arrange a montage of rocks, plants, water, and other natural gifts, or they take along domestic animals or wild ones that have been injured and kept for learning purposes. The author mentions the telling of stories, but it would be nice if the actual stories were also shared on these pages. Denise Perry Donavin

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 120 pages
• Publisher: Vanderwyk & Burnham; 1st Edition. edition (April 25, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964108925
• ISBN-13: 978-0964108929
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,072,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touches everyone with the power of animal healing, December 14, 1999

By 

shirley lieb (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bring Me the Ocean: Nature as Teacher, Messenger, and Intermediary (Hardcover)

I recently met Rebecca at a conference where she gave a lecture that followed along with the idea of the book. When it was over,I purchased the book and have since read many of the vignettes that it contains. Each story is filled with tender details of how nature and animals have helped people come to grips with illness and sadness. The book shows us how the world around us can help us come to terms with various problems and conditions in life. I work in the field of Animal Assisted Therapy and have found this book an inspiration to what I do. Bring Me An Ocean validates what I see everyday with my dog when we visit hospitals. The gentle touch of an animal or the opportunity for a patient to smell a flower or touch a seashell sometimes provides more healing that all the medicine in the world. For anyone who loves nature and wants to nuture the souls of loved ones who may be ill, or not, this book is a must.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Proof that "We can never have enough of nature", February 18, 2004

By 

Corinne H. Smith (Athol, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Bring Me the Ocean: Nature as Teacher, Messenger, and Intermediary (Hardcover)

Rebecca Reynolds and her Animals As Intermediaries colleagues conduct outreach programs at hospitals and special schools, bringing all types of natural objects into institutional settings to share with patients and students. She begins her text with the Thoreau quote that "We need the tonic of wildness. ... We can never have enough of nature." The real-life vignettes that follow illustrate the healing / spiritual power that nature has had on individuals of varying ages with special mental or physical challenges. We see how connections are made between the human spirit and Nature -- in the form of dogs, rabbits, moss, seaweed, even buckets of ocean water. The sight, smell and touch of cattails, grasses, marsh ice, and rabbit fur can console and heal. They can stimulate communication where none previously existed and unearth personal histories that were previously buried and unknown to caretakers. Reynolds' storytelling style makes it easy to witness these encounters in person. Readers can feel the starkness of a typical hospital room made temporarily more livable by bringing Nature inside. Inspirational reading for environmental educators, pet therapists, animal lovers, and those feeling a bit disconnected or locked behind four walls themselves.