The Contemplative Paddler's Fireside Companion

Description: The Contemplative Paddler’s Fireside Companion is for any paddler, wanderer, or dreamer with a love for the wild. Not a how-to manual, these pages comprise a why-do collection exploring the spiritual core of the paddle-trip experience. Tim McDonnell writes with clarity, spirit, and self-effacing good humor, taking readers along on several amazing wilderness journeys, sharing his explorations into the wild fueled by something far more substantial than mere adrenaline and far more significant than ego. Wonder, playfulness, gratitude, and introspection are the key ingredients of this well-crafted book. Each of his essays flares a bit and then lingers, just as one would expect from a good fire.

About the Author: Timothy McDonnell grew up in the wilderness of northeastern Minnesota on the periphery of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. He spent decades teaching English and reading skills to deaf and hard-of-hearing students in suburban Minneapolis. By avocation, he is an avid paddle tripper, writer, and dreamer. Since his retirement, Timothy spends his time writing and doing volunteer work for a Twin Cities non-profit organization that helps individuals transition out of homeless shelters and into independent living. When not in the woods, Timothy is either writing about the woods or dreaming about his next paddle journey. His first book, The Whole Forest for a Backyard: A Gunflint Trail Wilderness Memoir, was published by North Star Press in 2013. 

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