I spoke with someone on the phone the other day who had been at the Vancouver reading from Carry Tiger to Mountain. The call was professional in nature, our businesses searching for an intersection so we might help one another serve others. But the conversation came around to the book, and her praise for it.
She said a lot of things that made me smile. When you write a book, I image that often it slips into the world and as the writer all you get is silence as feedback. A few reviews, a note from a friend or two, and that’s it. Getting feedback from this stranger was a lovely gift.
She told me how she suggests to her clients, who are coming to her for career counselling, that they read it. Isn’t that amazing? To imagine that people who are charting a renewed course in life might look to Carry Tiger for inspiration is wonderful.
What she said that made me feel most wonderful was this: one day she was sitting on the sand at Jericho Beach in Vancouver, reading, when a friend came and sat down with her. She told her about the book, and read to her from the final chapter, Step Back to Ward off Monkey. This chapter deals with the delicate balance between activism and leading a healthy, balanced life. It’s something that I struggle with daily. My new acquaintance tells me that the writing really resonated with her friend on the beach.
Imagine that. Someone reading aloud from Carry Tiger to Mountain on a beach, hoping to inspire and revitalize a friend in need.
My greatest hope in writing Carry Tiger to Mountain was that it would be used in this manner. That people might turn to it for solace and guidance from a humble servant who himself has so much more to learn. I am in awe that someone out there has found this book of service. I am deeply grateful.
About Me
- Stephen Legault
- Stephen Legault is a writer, activist, organizational development consultant and fundraiser who lives in Victoria, BC and Canmore, Alberta. Stephen started writing in 1988. Kicked out of his high school biology class, he bought a notebook and sat down in the woods near his Burlington Ontario home and wrote some really awful, angst ridden poetry. Since then, Stephen has written for the Globe and Mail, Canadian Geographic, Outdoor Canada, Canadian Wildlife, and dozens of other periodicals and newspapers. His first book, Carry Tiger to Mountain: The Tao of Activism and Leadership was published in April of 2006 by Arsenal Pulp Press. The Cardinal Divide is the first in a series of environmental murder mysteries featuring Cole Blackwater. It will be published by NeWest Press in November of 2008. The series will combine gritty, action-oriented stories and rich human drama with real environmental and social justice conflicts. Stephen is a runner, photographer, and father of two beautiful boyz: Rio Bergen and Silas Morgen. He and his partner Jenn travel and explore the natural world of the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountains.