Phenomenal: A Hesitant Adventurer's Search for Wonder in the Natural World

“Leigh Ann Henion has tackled one of the great questions of contemporary, intelligent, adventurous women: Is it possible to be a wife and mother and still explore the world? Her answer seems to be that this is not only possible, but essential. This story shows how. I think it will open doors for many.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of The Signature of All Things and Eat, Pray, Love
 
Children have the ability to marvel over simple things in nature—leaves, pebbles, twigs. When she becomes a mother, Leigh Ann Henion starts to question: Could experiencing earth's most dazzling natural phenomena make the world similarly new again? Phenomenal is the improbable story of how she chases eclipses, auroras, and other natural phenomena around the globe to reawaken her sense of wonder.

Whether standing on the still-burning volcanoes of Hawai‘i or in the fearsome lightning storms of Venezuela, amid the vast wildebeest migration in Tanzania, or the millions of swirling butterflies that roost on a mountaintop in Mexico, Henion discovers the visceral awe that her child experiences every day. Her spiritual wanderlust puts her in the path of modern-day shamans, reindeer herders, and astrophysicists. These seekers trust their instincts, follow their passions, shape their days into the lives they most want to lead. And, somewhere along the way, Leigh Ann Henion becomes one of them.

Leigh Ann Henion has contributed to the Washington Post Magazine, Smithsonian, Orion, and Oxford American, among other publications. She is the winner of a Lowell Thomas Award, and her work has been cited in three editions of The Best American Travel Writing. Henion lives in the mountains of North Carolina.

LeighAnnHenion.com