Cape Cod nature writer John Hay wants us to see ourselves as part of the natural world - but he doesn't espouse a passive, vegetable-like existence. In these excerpts from his acclaimed writings, Hay stresses a sense of connection and belonging that's fierce and passionate.

"Do men belabor the special nature of consciousness too much, as if it...separated mankind from the rest of animate creation? Consciousness must be infinitely more mysterious, more connective, than any attributes we may assign it of personal distinction."
-"The Great Beach" (1963)

"A viable future needs its champions, those who will defend not only their own self-interest but function and belonging in nature. The future can be an entirety or a fragment. Divisions can breed divisions, as enemies breed enemies, until at last the universe will restore unity in what might be a catastrophic way."
-"In Defense of Nature" (1969)

"In this crazily conscious age, I know there is no substitute for direct exposure. Living with, rather than on, is where the fundamentalists are. Wade into the common stream and you find the uncharted connections beginning to widen from whatever contact you happen to make."
-"The Undiscovered Country" (1981)

"We are born with a restlessness which is as close to fundamental nature as any of our ideas about it. We reflect a planet that is never in rest. We respond to its daily moods, its often violent extremes, with passionate uncertainty, always searching for solutions to an inner hunger we are unable to control."
-"The Bird of Light" (1991)