|
| Animals as Guides for the Soul: Stories of Life-Changing Encounters | 
| Author: Susan Chernak Mcelroy
Publisher: Wellspring/Ballantine
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $1.69
You Save: $12.26 (88%)
New (27) from $4.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 448176
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0345424042
Dewey Decimal Number: 636.0887
EAN: 9780345424044
ASIN: 0345424042
Publication Date: August 31, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: some cover wear
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In her New York Times bestseller Animals as Teachers and Healers, Susan Chernak McElroy movingly explored the wide and enriching horizons of human relationships with animals. In this new volume of reflections and true animal stories, she invites us to broaden and deepen that relationship.
While living with her husband and animals on a farm in Oregon, McElroy pondered the ancient bonds that connect humans and animals: the healing gifts of animals, the genius of people who talk to them, and the power of animal messengers. She also asked herself the tough questions that engage every true animal lover. How can we soothe our anguish and guilt when a loved animal suffers or dies? How do we atone for our mistakes? When are animals prisoners and when are they fulfilled? Is it moral to eat other beings? And how can we go about transforming our relationship with animals?
Through daily experiences with the animals around her and those in her dreams--along with compelling true stories sent to her by readers--McElroy began to find answers. She discovered that animals are guides in the development of our souls. A frail llama teaches lessons of joy and unconditional love; a barn cat proves that service need not be imprisonment but fulfillment; a mortally injured hawk infuses a cancer patient with renewed strength and faith; an attentive rabbit awakens an abused child from a trance of sadness; and a skinny white horse does more for a damaged six-year-old boy in one hour than any human has done in six years.
In this deeply personal yet universal testament to the profound connection between animals and humans, there is wisdom and blessing. As the author reminds us, the fingerprint of God is often a pawprint.
From the Hardcover edition.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Another Must Read Book February 16, 2007
Does anyone truly understand the relationship between animals and humans? For a more insightful view and understanding, this book is required reading!!!
emotionally great! August 2, 2005
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book is very emotional and is well worth it to buy. I highly recommend it.
The Perfect Gift for an Animal Lover! January 12, 2005
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
After reading her first book, Animals as Teachers and Healers, I was surprised yet happy to find that Susan Chernak McElroy's next book was just as spiritually enlightening, entertaining, and thought provoking. Animals as Guides for the Soul belongs in every animal lover's library. (I received this book as a gift and stongly recommend it for those seeking the perfect present for an animal lover friend or relative.)
Susan Chernak McElroy is a beautiful writer who weaves her own stories about animals with those of other people. I could say that I enjoyed this book for the stories alone -- but McElroy goes beyond storytelling and fearlessly writes about highly sensitive issues related to animals and their humans such as vegetarianism, euthanasia, animal abuse, and death and bereavement. This is more than a "feel good" book. McElroy hides nothing, even her own philosophical questions over animal issues or her very personal emotional struggles concerning the animals she has known in her lifetime.
This book was a true joy to read. I have become a committed Susan Chernak McEloy reader and have already begun reading her book on wild animals, Heart in the Wild.
Great Read January 9, 2005
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Just a great read ! Its a nice bedside book to put your mind in a good place before falling asleep.
 Very disappointed. February 21, 2003
17 out of 33 found this review helpful
I ended up returning this book, and this is why: I read the first 100 pages and really enjoyed it. The writing wasn't necessarily academic or of the highest standard, but the stories were very nice and touching, and I envied the author for having the financial means to purchase her own hobby farm. However, on about page 110 or 120 she talks about how she ISN'T a vegetarian. I was totally shocked. I understand many animal advocates aren't, but everything the author writes about - about the spirituality of animals, how we should serve them more, about their intelligence - it didn't make any sense and I think it is very hypocritical. The author attempts to justify it by a weak argument along the lines that animals serve people in various ways, and some animals give up their lives so that WE can eat them (the WE bothered me, since I do not eat animals). She talks about how animals serve us and how people should serve (help) animals more, saying that seeing-eye dog trainers probably don't also volunteer at the local shelter - implying that they should and that somehow this is related to her weakness of eating animals (it wasn't very clear). She mentioned a number of times how she had changed her diet after having had cancer (making me think that "of course" she's a vegetarian now). She also is educated enough to know about how animals are treated in slaughterhouses and on big farms (she mentions this), and she has the financial means to eat vegetarian (sometimes it can be more expensive). Not everyone can leave the city to purchase a hobby farm, but she certainly could end her "struggles with vegetarianism" and stop eating the beings she publically praises so much. She also writes quite a bit about the influence her religious upbringing had on her - putting animals at the bottom of the hierarchy of life. In conclusion, everything she writes up until about page 110 prepares the reader for her to NOT say that it is okay for animals to be killed for some humans to eat. Everything she writes prepares the reader to believe that she believes that animals shouldn't die just so that humans can eat them. I am still very grateful for her healing work with the animals and any new awareness she has brought into this world through her writing, but the contradiction of her diet and her words was huge enough for me to be done with this author. In place of this book I purchased When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals. The author mentions he's a vegetarian right out front, and I am really enjoying it. His writing is of the highest standard, is very logical, interesting, humorous and poignant.
|
|
|
Wildlife, nature and the Environment
Sponsored Links
Learn how to get your own Amazon Book shop | |
