Deeper Currents is a spirited exploration of the blessings manifest in all wild places

In Deeper Currents: The Sacraments of Hunting and Fishing author Donald C. Jackson (Tracks, Wilder Ways) guides us on a guided journey into the cathedrals of wild and lonely places, those sacred places where hunters and fishers connect with the rhythms of the earth, and the rhythms of life that resonate within us. Jackson explores hunting and fishing as frameworks—sacraments—for discovering, engaging, and finding meaning in those rhythms. He invites readers to consider your own connections with wilder realms of being.

Hunting squirrels on an autumn morning, listening to the quiet, watching the stillness, probing the woods, rifle in hand, the reader will appreciate Jackson’s attention to nature that is too often neglected. Following a bird dog into the damp and mysterious places where woodcock settle on their southbound migrations, chasing hounds on the trail of raccoons on a frosty winter night, hunting deer in a quiet corner of a small farm, fishing for carp in a creek, bass and bluegill in ponds, catfish in a murky river, and reef fish in the Gulf, help to remind us that we are stewards of treasured echoes from the past, echoes that define us as hunters and fishers. We must pass those treasures along to the generations that follow.

In Deeper Currents, tractors and old barns find a place in the reader's heart. Boats and canoes navigate realms of danger and dreams. Jackson shares outdoor pilgrimages with good friends in cabins, tents, camps, and old trailers tucked beyond the reach of a rushing world. He rejoices in the whisper of stiff wings as ducks come to decoys, the call of geese and cranes over tidal flats, the hush before a storm, the muffled snap of a twig at twilight, a drop of dew falling on the surface of a pond, and the clicking of caribou hooves on an Alaskan gravel bar.

Jackson finds these natural moments fill us with energy. They remind us that we are taking part in a sacred heritage and that creation is unfolding all around us.

Tomorrow, Thursday, March 24, from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Jackson will sign Deeper Currents at The Book Mart and Cafe in Starkville.

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DONALD C. JACKSON is the Sharp Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Fisheries at Mississippi State University. He served as a US Peace Corps volunteer in Malaysia, attended Lexington Theological Seminary, and was pastor of New Liberty Christian Church, Disciples of Christ. He is a past president of the Mississippi Wildlife Federation and the American Fisheries Society. An avid duck hunter and fisherman, he is the author of Tracks and Wilder Ways, both published by University Press of Mississippi.