Join St. Columba’s Council for Ecological Discipleship for a rich, contemplative exploration of this timely book. Guided by CED member Penny Washbourn, we will gather to reflect on what it means for a river to be alive—and what it means for us to live in right relationship with the waters that sustain all life.

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From the bestselling nature writer Robert Macfarlane comes Is a River Alive?—a luminous, mind-opening journey into the ancient and urgent idea that rivers are not just waterways but living beings with whom we share relationship, responsibility, and fate. With the lyricism and insight that have made him “the great nature writer of this generation,” Macfarlane invites us to encounter rivers not as resources to be managed, but as kin to be honored.

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In this work of travel writing, natural history, and cultural insight, Macfarlane traces three remarkable river journeys: through Ecuador’s cloud forests, India’s wounded creeks and lagoons, and the wild, dam-threatened waters of Canada. Woven through these global stories is the intimate portrait of the fragile chalk stream near his own home, a river whose rhythms and vulnerabilities mirror our own.

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Come ready to listen, wonder, and imagine anew how the living waters of the world are calling us into deeper connection, care, and ecological discipleship.