Naked in Eden: My Adventure and Awakening in the Australian Rainforest
Naked in Eden: My Adventure and Awakening in the Australian Rainforest
Robin Easton
Reviewed by: Anne Holmes for the NABBW
Robin Easton was twenty-five when she left the United States and went to live with her husband in the remote, tropical Daintree Rainforest of Queensland, Australia.
There, living among poisonous snakes, stinging trees and huge spiders, not to mention leeches and ticks, she fell deeply in love with the earth. She also realized that she had become part of the food chain. If she wanted to stay alive, she had to face her fears and become acutely aware of the life in the forest.
What brought her to this point? Easton tells us she might not have ended up in the wilds of the Australian Rainforest if she hadn’t been living with autism. Though hers was a mild case, it was still enough to cause her to feel that she didn’t fit into her culture. So when she met an Australian in Salt Lake City, where she was living – then fell madly in love with him — it didn’t take much to convince her to go back to Australia with him. She says she didn’t feel like she had much else going on in her life.
Once she got to the rainforest, she discovered it wasn’t the magical experience she had anticipated. There were all these deadly creatures and she felt like she was in a nightmare. But there was no turning back. And then the miracle began to happen: The more she observed life in the forest, the more she grew to respect its survival skills. And she says, she learned she could no longer “bungle along unconsciously,” as she had before. In response, she began to learn about the life around her – its habits, its needs, where to find what, and when the forest was active.
Easton realized that all of the life in the forest – including the two of them – had to be aware 24/7 – OR RISK BEING EATEN. She understood that everything in the forest was part of the great circle of life — life eating itself to create more life.
She tells the reader how she began to experience Mother Earth as 100% pure love. There was no judgment, no sense of time, no sense of distance – just total compassion acceptance and love.
And in this discovery, you learn, she not only developed great respect for the life around her, but she was reborn. She not only learned to survive, she learned to thrive. Best of all, she heard the Forest talk to her, and she was healed. She saw how her roots go all the way back to the beginning of existence. She no longer saw Earth as scenery, now it became a living, powerful, dynamic and infinite life force.
The Daintree is one of the world’s oldest tropical forests, home to a vast number of rare and threatened species. Though Easton has returned from the Forest, she says she looks forward to living in such raw circumstances again. It’s an opportunity, she says, to see amazing things – in the place where there is no hiding from ourselves or the basic laws of nature.
Naked in Eden raises many timely questions, which you will enjoy contemplating as you devour this book. Among them:
- Why is the human connection with Nature often so healing?
- How can people take ownership for improving their health, living conditions and personal fulfillment using the lessons found in Nature?
- Why should we be concerned about the loss of the rainforest habitat?
