This One Wild and Precious Life: The Path Back to Connection in a Fractured World

“Sarah Wilson is a force of nature – quite literally. She has taken her pain and grief about our sick and troubled world and alchemized it into action, advocacy, adventure, poetry, and true love. ” — ELIZABETH GILBERT

Will you sleep through the revolution? Or do you want to wake up and reclaim your one, wild and precious life? From New York Times bestselling author Sarah Wilson comes a spiritual guidebook for surviving and thriving during challenging times.

Many of us are living with the sense that things are not right with the world, as global problems like the pandemic, the climate crisis, political polarization, and social injustice mount, leaving us in a state of spiritual PTSD. We have retreated, morally and psychologically; we are experiencing a crisis of disconnection—from one another, from our true values, from joy, and from life as we feel we are meant to be living it.

Sarah Wilson argues that this sense of despair and disconnection is ironically what unites us—that deep down, we are all feeling that same itch for a new way of living. This One Wild and Precious Life opens our eyes to how we got here and offers a radically hopeful path forward. Drawing on science, literature, philosophy and the wisdom of some of the world’s leading experts, and her personal journey, Wilson weaves a one-of-a-kind narrative that lights the way back to the life we love. En route, she shows us how to wake up an reconnect with life with “wild practices” that include:

Hike. Just hike. Great minds throughout history have embraced the “walking cure” and we should do the same. Go to your edge. Do what scares you and embrace discomfort daily. #Buylesslivemore. Break the cycle of mindless consumption and get light with your life: Ditch your car, stop shopping, and live out of one bagBecome a soul nerd. Embrace poetry, deep reading, art, and classical music to light up your intellect. Get “full-fat spiritual”. How to have an active practice – beyond the “lite” “rainbows and unicorns” – and use it to change the world. Practice wild activism. If you can get 3.5 per cent of a population to participate in sustained, non-violent protest, change happens. We create our better world.

The time has come to boldly, wildly, imagine better. We are being called upon, individually and as a society, to forge a new path and to find a new way of living. Will you join the journey?

© 2020 Dey Street Books (Audiobook): 9780063005204

Release date

Audiobook: 29 December 2020