Sunday, November 15
4:00-6:00 PM
“The Nature of Gratitude” with authors Tom Titus and Eric Alan
To celebrate the season, nature-inspired authors Tom Titus and Eric Alan will host “The Nature of Gratitude” at Tsunami Books in Eugene on Sunday, November 15th at 4 p.m. They’ll offer perspectives on gratitude using words, photos and recorded music. They'll include an invocation from poet David Whyte, passages from their own books and CD, and offerings of gratitude that other people bring to share. Everyone is welcome and admission is free. The authors will pass the hat for Tsunami Books in gratitude for all the bookstore has done for our local arts community; all book sales will benefit Tsunami as well.
In addition, Eric Alan and Tom Titus will serve as the hosts of the Second Friday Art Walk in Springfield on Friday, November 13th where the theme will also be gratitude. The Art Walk will begin at Springfield City Hall Gallery at 5:30 p.m. and then move through several galleries. The event will also include a food drive, and will benefit homeless veterans.
Tom Titus grew up in the rural Willamette Valley foothills near Eugene. He returned home after ten years in the Midwest and began searching for the Oregon of his youth: old orchards, bay clams, wild mushrooms, and spawning salmon. His locally popular book Blackberries in July: A Forager’s Field Guide to Inner Peace is a search for place, a year-long chronology of the hunting and gathering of his spirit that became a reunion with the land and intergenerational tradition. Tom is a research biologist and instructor at the University of Oregon. He works, writes, and forages from a home that three cats share with him and his wife in Eugene.
Eric Alan is an author, photographer, and broadcaster serves as the music, arts and culture reporter for NPR affiliate KLCC. He has authored three books, including Wild Grace: Nature as a Spiritual Path and its sequel Grace and Tranquility, which is accompanied by a music CD co-written with international recording artists Gypsy Soul; and This Is Our Time!, a look at the human aspects of the 2010 World Series Champion San Francisco Giants, co-written with MLB.com’s Chris Haft. He also collaborates with National Geographic photographer Dewitt Jones on the “Celebrate What’s Right With the World” project, where he regularly contributes blog posts and photographs. He is working on land conservation issues at his home near Dorena Lake, east of Cottage Grove.