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

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.