“Uncover the Mysteries of Nature: A Journey through Lynne Golodner’s ‘Forest Walk on a Friday'”
In Forest Walk on a Friday: Essays on Love, Home and Finding My Voice at Midlife (Scotia Road Books; 2025), Lynne Golodner takes us with her down her path in a beautiful collection of essays.
For Golodner, the dual searches for home and voice are closely related. She feels in harmony with herself on the water in a kayak or hiking in the woods — often alone. It is in nature, away from her life’s usual hustle-bustle, where she can listen and learn. In “Still the Dandelions Come,” we see Golodner’s respect for the hardiest weeds and her surrender to the deer that has eaten the fruit of her labor in her garden: “I wondered if I could sit beside the deer and have a conversation. I’d like to talk with someone who just knows in her body how to live in this world.” I am not surprised by Golodner’s resonance with the natural world, as her essays are sensual, earthy. She writes about pleasure as well as pain, and, often, about the body.
