In the vein of Nan Shepherd's The Living Mountain and Mary Oliver's gentle writing on nature, Mountain Song is a love letter to adventure, slowing down, and quietly noticing the beauty of wild places and our place within them.
"Here in the silence and surrounded by mountains, I’m starting to find my answers, at least for now. I want to be moulded by the world: by the people I’ve loved and the places I’ve sat and listened quietly, watching leaves falling, the sun rising and stars appearing..."
After graduating university with no idea what she really wanted to do with her life, Lucy Fuggle made the unexpected decision to leave behind her home in the UK for the company of glacier-covered mountains, alpine flora and fauna, and soaring eagles in Switzerland's Berner Oberland. For three years, she made picture-perfect Meiringen her home.
Growing up painfully shy and with high-functioning autism, Lucy found new mental and physical courage in the natural world around her traditional Swiss chalet, living alone with a view of towering peaks and waterfalls. In summer, she explored every trail around her house, including the Via Alpina trail 400 km across Switzerland. The coldest time of the year saw her switch hiking for freezing lake swims, snowshoe hikes, and glacier treks.
As her relationships, career, and inner life changed – for better and for worse – she ventured further into the wild around her for comfort, answers, and acceptance. In the silence and loneliness, she found the space to step into who she really was, no matter what others thought of that.
This is her quietly inspiring and soothing story of the ups and downs of living simply, quietly and in tune with nature and the transformation it can bring, accompanied by beautiful photographs and pen and ink sketches. Surrounded by some of the most striking scenery in Europe, Lucy finds a slower pace of living and exchanges insecurity for courage, changing the course of her life beyond recognition.
Thoughts:
I am a great fan of structure, order, and logic. When I started reading this book, I was disappointed because it read like a journal or a diary of disjointed and non-chronological entries. However, as I moved further along, I realized that the style suited the content.
Fuggle writes about how successfully handled the problems that plagued her. I like stories of second chances and rebuilding lives.
The geography and the climate of the Swiss Alps are so different from my part of the world that the setting felt dreamlike. I can never imagine climbing mountains or hiking through them, but I loved reading her descriptions of them.
With my head in the clouds and snow of the Alps, I was able to ignore most of the troubles I had when I was reading the book. It comforted me because I could relate to some of the different mindsets Fuggle went through while writing it.
The book has many quotes and poems, which are listed at the end. It also has great photographs taken by her.
It is an easy and relaxing book, written well.
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