When the world feels overwhelming, where do you find sanctuary?
In this tender collection of essays, poems, and meditations, E. Katherine Kottaras invites us into her small Los Angeles garden—a place of refuge and renewal during pandemic isolation, family health crises, and the daily challenges of being a queer parent in an uncertain world.
Organized around nature's cycles of planting, growing, releasing, and celebrating, How to come out to the jasmine first weaves together scientific research on nature-based healing with deeply personal poetry and reflections on creativity, identity, and resilience. Each piece includes gentle invitations for readers to explore their own relationships to place, body, and creative expression.
Nature wasn't just a pleasant escape but actual medicine for our wounded bodies and spirits.
An Invitation to your own sanctuary
"My intention with this book is for readers to feel like they've gone on a brisk walk with me and have entered my garden, where four small raised beds and a decades-long collection of perennials, vines, and even berries bloom and blossom two-thirds of the year. In this space, the gifts of the land have absorbed my pain and my sorrows. It's where I talk to my parents, where I imagine their voices guide me back to myself, to the time even before their pain and sorrows seeped into my own awareness. It’s a space where I can feel and write and rage and sometimes claw into the dirt. It’s also where I share joy, healing, and hope with my family, friends, and community. That is ultimately my hope for you, as well, dear reader."
How to come out to the jasmine first is organized around nature's cycles of planting, growing, releasing, and celebrating—but you don't need a garden to benefit from these practices. Each piece includes gentle invitations for readers to engage with their own experiences.
This book offers:
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Scientific research on nature-based healing woven with personal reflection
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Gentle writing prompts that help you explore your own stories
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LGBTQ+ perspectives on finding belonging in the natural world
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Mindful practices you can do anywhere