"As a hospice doctor I learned that people approaching death remember moments of life, not their big accomplishments. In the essays in Heaven on Earth, Melliger celebrates his moments with poetic grace. Curt’s life exemplifies an emphasis on savoring each moment while following instincts on what experiences to embrace. His self-directed education comes from life experiences, not a conventional path toward a particular career. His poetic descriptions of the beauty and depth of life in the Southwest mountains bring the reader into his experience. Living life to the fullest is the overarching theme as essays range from odes to movement and adventure to his honoring of the compassion and wisdom of people often dismissed by society to appreciation of nature up close and personal. His insights were an inspiration to me and I strongly encourage you to read this book. It will increase your appreciation and awareness of each moment!" --Pamela M. Kircher, MD, Author of Love is the Link
Pamela M. Kircher, MD
"Here is a beautiful, simple, sometimes funny book, well written, and very interesting. But don’t be lulled into somnolence. For the author here is echoing centuries of wisdom passed on by the wisest and most learned men of our history. Shamans, mystics, spiritual people and poets, all spoke with similar ideas. From Lao Tzu, 6th century B.C. “love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things.” Or from Li Po, one of China’s most famous poets, 7th century, “Thoughts on a quiet night- Before my bed the light is so bright, it looks like a layer of frost, lifting my head I gape at the moon, lying back down I think of home.” So simple, yet containing so much. These thoughts of the importance of Nature in our lives have been carried on into our times by Wordsworth, Thoreau Muir, Carl Safina, and others.
This is a wonderful book by a person in love with the world around him. We can all learn from these well done writings. I love the long sentences containing word groupings, coming from many different places, that surround the idea of the sentence. Sometimes it’s like the essence of an author’s complete work in a single sentence. And the internal rhyming in sentences is fun, my favorite being “from Nebraska to Alaska.” Some would say the author has been able to depress his ego and its effect on the default mode network of the brain, (located in the posterior cingulate cortex), and the result has been this uninterrupted flow of beauty, joy, and awe. Read this book. Learn from it. You won’t be disappointed. This is an important work." --John Marshall, author of several Silverton, Colorado books with Return to Mountain, Tai Chi, Between Heaven and Earth by Dolores LaChapelle with photography by John Marshall
"I was predisposed to enjoy Heaven Here on Earth, a recently published collection of essays by Curt Melliger. Since Melliger used to write a column fairly regularly for the Four Corners Free Press (and still sends us one once in a while), I knew his style of writing, and it isn’t dreary or morose.
There are 43 essays in Heaven, and though I haven’t read them all, I have yet to find one that doesn’t exude hope and joy. Not a syrupy sort of joy, but a robust optimism that is a bit reminiscent of Whitman. Like him, Melliger finds delight in the world around us, in the quotidian and little things. “One of the most sstunning sights in all of creation” he writes, “is the supremely concentrated palette of hues produced when gas leaks from a car’s fuel line. . .” This is a collection about heaven on earth, after all (though there is one essay about near-death experiences). It definitely has a spiritual flavor, but not a religious one.
The essays are meant to be read slowly and in small doses. This isn’t a collection you would race through in a few sittings. Melliger’s style, full of repetitive cadences, is best enjoyed at a leisurely pace. But if you want to take a stroll through a world that is imbued with beauty and pleasure, quirky characters and small miracles, this is a good read.
Melliger’s musings can be thought-provoking. Americans today “tend to live in boxes,” he notes. “. . . four walls, a ceiling, and a floor. . . we are almost constantly surrounded by them. Kind of like coffins for the living.”
Mostly, though, he writes about things that simply make you smile. The smell of wood smoke, the joys of watching a fire, a little old lady who picked him up hitchhiking, the special view you have of the world when you take off your eyeglasses.
If you’re looking for something to give you a feeling of positive energy rather than despair, Heaven Here on Earth is waiting." --Gail Binkly
