“Every Step Is Home” a perfect book for anyone seeking to deepen their connection to the earth and their own spirituality2
Whether you’re a traveler or someone looking to embark on your own spiritual journey, this book offers experiences and insights. It’s a reminder that every step we take can lead us closer to home, both physically and spiritually.

Erickson has written about her travels around the world. When the Pandemic occurred, she and her husband set out in a camper to explore 11 locations in the US that have had spiritual meaning to various cultures.
I was particularly interested in reading her thoughts about locations that I've visited myself, such as Pipestone, MN, Hopewell Mounds in OH, Chaco Canyon, NM, and Kilauea Volcano, HI. But I found it just as intriguing to read Erickson's thoughts about places that I haven’t explored, and now have added sites to my “Places to Go” list.
I appreciate the fact that in addition to describing the historical importance of the site, the author took time to just BE in these places, and reflect on the spiritual significance of each area.

Thank you to NetGalley and Westminster John Knox Press for the ARC of Every Step is Home!

Every Step is Home is Lori Erickson's travel diary of what she considers spiritual experiences traveling around the United States. Between natural phenomena and Indigenous culture, she attempts to combine her travelogue with greater spiritual experiences.

I don't feel that I really grasped the spiritual experiences that Erickson was trying to find as she traveled during the pandemic. She spends a lot of time talking about while she shouldn't be pitied for her minor inconveniences during the pandemic she was inconvenienced. I don't really think the book accomplishes its premise of spiritual experiences in the United States but it was an interesting travel memoir that had a recurring theme.

I always hoped there was a place I could visit that would inspire me to a better mindset. According to Lori Erickson, there are plenty!

Travel writer, Lor Erickson, gives the world a truly inspirational road map in her book Every Step is Home, as she uncovers and presents locations throughout the United States holding special spiritual meaning.

This is a cool book and I do know what she means by places with a spiritual meaning. Years ago I wrote a book, Images of America: Apple Valley, CA. It celebrates the history of a relatively small swatch of land in Southern California’s High Desert that has drawn entrepreneurs and Hollywood stars to it for decades.

Thank You tuberculosis. During the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, 70 to 90 percent of urban populations in Europe and the United States contracted tuberculosis. Of those people, roughly 80 percent died of the disease.

Sound like COVID-19?

In the case of my Apple Valley book, flocks of people fled urban areas for drier, and more roomy areas, thinking the air would improve their lung problems. During that time, a natural spiritualist named Catherine Boynton, who lived in Los Angeles and was well connected to the Hollywood scene received a vision that a place existed in the desert where she could find spiritual enlightenment and refuge from tuberculosis.

In 1911, Boynton traveled to Apple Valley from the California coast during the epidemic after receiving “a call” to find a magic place in the desert with which to open a health sanitorium. Boynton discovered the magic place from her visions about three hours of modern-day driving time to the west of Los Angeles.

A knoll overlooking the great Mojave Desert basin eventually became Rancho Yucca Loma, a health farm for people like Thomas Seton, founder of the Boy Scouts, and movie star Clark Gable shortly after his wife Carole Lumbard died.

After that generation, another generation of Long Beach developers transformed the same area into an old West Hollywood hub used for movies and recreation.

After that generation, the Town of Apple Valley constructed dozens of high-end homes on the knoll, creating another financial boon. But the spiritual spot, the “X” that marks the spot where Boynton found her original inspiration, was vacant until the last few years before and during the COVID-19 epidemic.

The still-unimproved land is considered spiritually blessed and is now owned by the High Desert Church. The rocks and dirt, creosote bushes, and Joshua Trees still betray the land’s storied past with remnants of the early 1900s transformation. Someday, that last spiritual spot will be their Apple Valley Sanctuary

Erickson has an entire book of stories and places just like Apple Valley where people of the past found their mission and inspiration for life. Published in October of 2023, Erickson appears to have found inspiration to share her collection of magical locations during COVID-19 and blessed us with the map that will guide curious seekers to their destiny.

This is a fascinating book. Its stories need to be read to generations upon generations, lest we lose the map once more where “X” marks the spot. I suppose it doesn’t matter though, these locations call to those who look for spiritual meaning in their environment. And someone will find each one.

Every Step Is Home, by travel writer Lori Erickson, is a wonderful book about finding your true home--that is, your spiritual side--whether you wander around the world or, as she did, waited out the pandemic before hitting the road again. Like her, I find beauty and a sense of the sacred not necessarily in cathedrals or churches, but in the many wonders of the natural world. Highly recommended.

Erickson thoughtfully weaves travel narrative together with spiritual reflection and scientific explanation. She searches for practices and places that might refresh her Christian rituals which she feels have become stale, and only more so when the pandemic arrives.

As a lifelong Midwesterner and second career pastor I was introduced to unexplored sacred places closer to home: mounds in Iowa and Ohio and the sandhill crane migration in North Dakota. Erickson’s writing creates a holy appreciation for the sacred rituals of other traditions, acknowledges the spiritual restlessness that was amplified by COVID-19, and reminds me that I don’t have to take thousand mile pilgrimages to experience the holy.

The elements and themes that root each chapter offered an accessible entry into each rich reflection. When many writers are avoiding any pandemic discussion, Erickson gently prompts readers to reflect on how our own spiritual geography has been impacted by the challenges of recent years. She eloquently describes what I experienced on many of my local hikes: the sacredness that surrounds every step we take when we pay attention.

This book is very dense and detail oriented in recounting the historical, cultural, and geological details for each site, along with how they have been used for religion. Writing style is a mix of journalistic and introspective. I received a free ebook from NetGalley, which has not influenced my review. However, I wish I could have received it as a Kindle book rather than Adobe, which is hard on the eyes to read.

Given the chance to read a book that combines travel, spirituality, and locations in the U.S., I said "Yes, thank you." Most books of spiritual locations tend to be international, so having locations that don't require passports and multiple plane journeys was appealing.

I connected with some sections more than others - the caves and the volcanos especially. Some of it was the descriptive language she used for each location, and some was likely my personal interest of those areas. Erickson includes some history of each area so that the reader understands how the perception of the area's spirituality has changed over time. She includes information about campground reservations and park access so that it's easier to figure out if you want to spend the time on an internet deep dive to make the arrangements to go.

The thing that brought this from 3.5 stars to 3 was that it was too easy to put down. As much as I was interested in the overall topic and in each of the areas being described, I would have to remind myself to pick it up again after stopping overnight. It didn't have the automatic pull for me to pick it up and find out what came next.

This book is one part travel log, one part history lesson, and one part religious work. The author shares both my love of travel and my faith background, however, this book isn't specifically directed toward one religious affiliation. She provides her faith perspective, but then also includes other religions when discussing some universal concepts about the divine in nature.

While some travel lessons are universal, others are specific to a time/location. I appreciated the author's thoughts about COVID regulations and how they affected her worship experience. More so, I enjoyed reading about how she filled those unmet needs by meeting with God in nature.

*I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review.

Erickson does a great job of describing interesting and 'metaphysical' locations I may never be able to visit in person. Her detailed account of her travels and editorial comments throughout made for a great read. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review her book. PS. Grew up in Wheeling, about 12 miles from the Grave Creek Mound, but only got to visit it as an adult. So was very intrigued with the cross-section depiction of the mound, as it only has a small museum inside now.

While a world traveler to different pilgrimages, Lori Erickson was faced with a dilemma. It was during COVID and overseas travel wasn’t possible and Zoom time for her church was becoming unmeaningful to her. She and her husband would travel throughout the States including Alaska and Hawaii searching for renewal and inspiration. Each chapter has a picture of the subject matter: The trip begins when they leave their home in Iowa and travel to New Mexico to Chimayo where dirt is considered holy and the last stop returns to New Mexico to Chaco Canyon with the topic of Astronomy which forces the eyes to heaven. It’s a wonderful travelogue because she did her research and shares that process with the reader before embarking on each destination and yet focuses on what a guide will teach the couple about the site but allowing them time to simply walk, stop and listen to what a particular site offers as a pilgrimage. In Oregon the focus was water and the hot springs. Particularly interesting is the situation that she only had a vague idea with the region where to locate the springs but to protect the locale, she does not disclose the exact locations for two of the springs they find. Great reader for the armchair traveler but to ponder her lessons will certainly encourage anyone searching for the spirit. Does she find a reason to return to her own church or does she feel a need to continue searching for the spiritual need in her life; read this book and find out or perhaps it will help to follow her trail to find enrichment in your own spiritual life. Thanks to NetGalley and Westminster John Knox Press; this is my honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

The book is subtitled “A Spiritual Geography from Appalachia to Alaska” and explores sacred places, those places defined in some manner as having an element connected with or to God (or the gods). As a travel writer dealing with the restlessness of confinement during the COVID lockdown, Erickson asks the question of what does it mean to seek the spirit(s) outside the walls of a building? The answer is perhaps we need to shift perspective, get out of our ordinary plane of existence and find a new vantage point. Packing up their teardrop camper, Erickson and her husband hit the road and visited the following places:

The Marching Bears, Iowa (element: mounds)
El Santuario de Chimayó, New Mexico (element: dirt)
The Sandhill Crane Migration, Nebraska (element: air)
The Ancient Ohio Trail, Ohio (element: mounds)
Pipestone National Monument, Minnesota (element: stone)
Redwood National, California (element: trees)
Various Hot Springs, Oregon (element: water)
Dunbar Cave, Tennessee (element: caves)
Buffalo Roundup, South Dakota (element: animals)
Northern Lights, Alaska (element: lights)
Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii (element: fire)
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (element: astronomy)

Erickson gives us the history of each place, the connection to its element, the reason why these places are venerated, and makes further connections to other sacred places.

What a journey! And I wish I had a teardrop camper as I need to see some of these places in person:

https://candysplanet.wordpress.com/

Every Step is Home called out to me because it promised to take me to eleven US locations where I could find a spiritual connection to the natural world. I spend a lot of time exploring N. America in my campervan and always look for new places to explore. Even though I've driven around all 48 lower states, I've only visited or experienced two of the 11 sites described by Lori Erickson. Five of her offerings had slipped entirely under my radar, while the others were on my unending bucket list. After reading her book, all nine sites/events I haven't explored are high on my bucket list. Of the locations I have visited (the California Redwoods and The Ancient Ohio Trail), both are on my list of all-time favorite places to explore.

Given this, I can't rate this book lower than four stars - it's a travel book that has inspired me to visit the locations described. However, as a reading experience, I found the prose uninspired. At times, it read like a school assignment for an expository essay, with paragraphs listing factoids like they were jotted down in a stack of notecards. Even so, the tales will spark your wanderlust - especially if you find your heart connections in the natural world.

If you are seeking inspiration for a cross-country road trip or are looking for destinations to explore in Hawaii and Alaska, you'll find plenty of ideas here. I doubt you will find much spiritual enlightenment in the book's stories. Still, the point is to encourage you to explore these places in real life - to deepen your connection with the natural world. Many sites need all your senses to adequately experience and require visits at specific times of the year.

This book would make an excellent gift for someone who loves exploring nature.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an electronic ARC in exchange or a review.

Even if I'm not Christian I loved this book because it's full of food for thought, interesting spiritual experiences and diferent things that can be considered spiritual.
A huge cathedral can be very beautiful but it can also be full of people chattering makeing impossible to find the silence needed for living any spiritual experience.
There's a lot to learn reading this book and it would be a great guide for a travel.
Loved it
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Travel writer Lori Erickson describes herself as Christian but spiritually restless. Frustrated by the limitations of church services held via Zoom during the COVID pandemic, she and her husband set out to explore sacred sites around the United States, and Erickson writes about the spiritual insights she gains from these experiences.

The book is organized into a prologue and eleven chapters, each focused on one geographic area and an element it represents (such as trees, water, stone, and fire). In addition to describing the sites, Erickson includes tangents on various related topics, such as the Wim Hoff Method in the chapter on air. Expect brief introductions to various religious traditions, myths, legends, and historical figures. Some chapters resonated with me more than others, but all were interesting. I was familiar with some of the locations Erickson describes, but a few I had never heard of. I hope to visit some of these places someday.

A single black and white photograph precedes each chapter. My one disappointment in this book is the lack of additional photographs.

The back matter includes notes and a brief discussion guide for book groups.

Thanks to Westminster John Knox Press for providing me with an electronic ARC through NetGalley. I volunteered to provide an honest review.

EVERY STEP IS HOME by Lori Erickson is wonder-filled, gape-mouthed pleasure. Erickson is the rarest of writers in enabling me to see and feel her experiences and enjoy every minute of what she shares as if I were spending time with a long-known, much-beloved and trusted friend -- who also happens to tempt me into my own wide-eyed exploration of this world. I especially appreciated her descriptions of Alaska's Northern Lights and Oregon's hot springs, making me seriously consider ways to see them for myself -- however, this is the case with all the other places she describes so vividly and compellingly that I feel I've been there myself. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

I so enjoyed traveling with Lori and her husband Bob in this wonderful book about their explorations of spiritual sites in the US during the pandemic. Her writing style is enjoyable and flows easily, without getting in the way of her story. I felt like I could imagine all the places they went, even though only one black and white photo was included with each location. Having just read Luke Russert’s “Look for Me There,” who goes soul-searching around the planet, it was nice to read about my own country and its amazing sights and animals. Highly recommend to travel readers.

Every Step Is Home: A Spiritual Geography from Appalachia to Alaska
I was gifted this book by NetGalley in exchange for a review. Every opinion is my own!




From Amazon:

Globetrotting travel writer Lori Erickson has long searched for the sacred in locations and cultures far from home as well as in her beloved Iowa. But when the pandemic put both air travel and in-person worship off-limits, Lori and her husband hit the road with a camper in tow to discover spiritual sites and experiences in their own home country.

From the Serpent Mound of Ohio to the Redwoods of California—and, ultimately, by air to see natural wonders in Alaska and Hawaii—Erickson uncovers deep connections both to the lands that now make up the United States and to the elements that have had sacred meaning to people throughout history and across the globe. Through her profound, informative, and witty reflections on the power of stone, water, light, fire, and more, readers will discover new destinations in North America while deepening their own connection to spirit. Whether exploring national parks or visiting holy sites, this book makes for the perfect spiritual companion and guide.



My Take:

A few years ago, I took a trip to Sedona, Arizona. It was my second time there. My first trip was when my daughter was very young and we only spent about 8 hours there. I felt a draw while I was there, my spirit was happy and I began to learn about spiritual contexts that were outside of religion. When I went the second time, I spent time with people who lived there, who told me their stories about the magical land that was Sedona.

So when I happened upon this author, Lor Erickson, I knew why someone would be compelled to write about sacred places. Her bond with the natural world, finding her spirit not in a building but with nature, reminds me of my own father. Every Sunday he would go fishing, finding the peace and connection he needed on the water with a rod and reel. It wasn't a far stretch to imagine someone connecting and communing with nature in a deeply spiritual way. If this sounds like you, then I can fully recommend this book to you.



About the Author:





Lori Erickson is one of America's top travel writers specializing in spiritual journeys. She is the author of The Soul of the Family Tree, Near the Exit (which won a Silver INDIES Award for 2019 Religion Book of the Year from Foreword Reviews), and Holy Rover. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, National Geographic Traveler, and Better Homes & Gardens, among others. She lives in Iowa City, Iowa, with her husband, Bob Sessions.



Product Details
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Westminster John Knox Press (September 5, 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 200 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0664268323
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0664268329
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.6 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #797,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#258 in Literary & Religious Travel Guides
#7,453 in Christian Inspirational
#14,886 in Christian Spiritual Growth (Books)

When I got an email from Net Gallery to request the book “Every Step is Home” by Lori Erickson I was excited. It sounded like it was a travel book around the United States. I am not particularly spiritual so that part was not intriguing to me. Anyway I thought why not, so when I was approved I downloaded it. Unfortunately it only downloaded to Net Gallery Shelf which I don’t like because I can only read it on my phone which is too small. I would never read a Christian inspired book but I started and actually got into this book. I also liked that the author is about my age, 60. The author and her husband visit a wide variety of places and she discusses all the involved spiritual groups associated with each site. It is like a basic primer on religion but she has a very interesting, readable approach. It certainly will make me think differently of sacred sites I visit, or even thinking of more things being sacred like soil and rock.
I found her spirituality not over the top and her information about each of her sites was really interesting. I particularly like the chapter on the Redwood trees in California and how she viewed them as cathedrals and perhaps they are the model for our human built cathedrals.
Her chapters on hot springs as well as other sites were very similar to what I have experienced, so I enjoyed that. I guess all these places are special and you might view them as religious or not but certainly deserving of our protection and respect. This is a very fun, quick read that might inspire you to get out there and explore nature. You might even want to take this book along as you visit some of the sites she mentions, of course some locations she does not disclose like those special hot spring sites.

This book was a joy to read. Discovering these sites as an armchair traveler was not only fascinating but this was written as if the author was sitting in your living room telling you of each experience. I will recommend to one of my book clubs because it would be interesting to discuss with others, and possibly visit one or more of these sites!