By the Side of the Buffalo Pasture

Asheville, NC: White Magic Publishing, 2006. presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. [8], iii, [1], 124 pages. Medicine Wheel Diagram. Endnotes. Nice inscription by author inside the front cover. Small item of publisher's ephemera laid in. Cover has slight wear and soiling. The author is a former official with the United States Environmental Protection Agency. From a review posted on the author's website: Kathleen Buerer’s memoir, By the Side of the Buffalo Pasture, evokes yearning for meaning in life. This woman of courage left a materially comfortable existence in pursuit of that which is intangible yet as necessary as water. Clearly and compassionately, she describes her experience of leaving her position with the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington DC and the promise of a “fat retirement check” in search of something more.

That something more begins to unfold after she reads a newspaper article about the birth of a White Buffalo on a farm in Janesville, Wisconsin. She plans to visit the farm during her next trip to the Midwest. When she gets there, she feels drawn to Miracle, a “muddy beast” that in Native American culture represents the fulfillment of an ancient prophesy.

While many in midlife might turn to materialism to avoid confronting the mystery of life, Buerer chooses to delve deeper into life’s purpose and find meaning in her own existence. She visits Miracle repeatedly over the animal’s life span of 10 years and finds herself learning lessons from those encounters. She becomes more sensitive to the environment. “Love the Earth” is fixed in her subconscious. She becomes sharply aware of consumerism and the carelessness of the modern age and examines what it means to be a woman, a keeper of the earth, a mother.

Miracle, the White Buffalo, represents an era that has passed and the author romanticizes a simpler time when herds of buffalo roamed the plains offering their lives to sustain Native peoples. The captivating mythological Legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman is beautifully retold and reminds us of the wisdom in the search for the still voice within. Buerer poignantly takes us back to the simplicity of the earth, the beauty of nature and the search for those things that make life worth living - love, compassion and honoring the planet and all of its inhabitants.

This book is an easy read. And well worth the journey.
Condition: Very good.

Keywords: White Buffalo, Materialism, Medicine Wheel, Native Americans, Janesville, Wisconsin, Environmental Protection, Consumerism, Feminism, Native Peoples, Calf Woman, Spirituality

ISBN: 0978788001

[Book #73560]

Price: $45.00

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