About this Event
Cara Benson’s healing journey began with overcoming addiction and rebuilding her life through recovery and her love of hiking. Years, later, after the devastating loss of her partner, Jon, tosuicide, Cara returned to the forests of upstate New York, where wandering through naturebecame a way to navigate her grief and rediscover her sense of purpose. Her connection to thenatural world offered space for reflection and healing.
Through small, meaningful acts—collecting acorns to restore forests and caring for the birds Jonloved—Benson transformed her grief into a renewed commitment to life and the planet. In An Armsfull of Birds, Benson explores how the lessons of love, loss, and recovery can deepen ourconnection to the natural world—a source of healing, hope, and purpose.
Doors open at 6:30pm. The presentation starts at 7:00pm.
*The event is free, but space is limited, and registration is required. For those unable to attend in person, the talk will be live-streamed on our YouTube Channel.
is the author of the memoir An Armsfull of Birds: A Personal Field Guide to Love, Loss, and Commitment. She appeared on Cheryl Strayed’s Mind Over Mountain podcast to talk about the book, and Orion Magazine selected Armsfull for Recommended Reading, calling it a “powerful climate memoir.” Other writing has appeared in The New York Times, Boston Review, Sierra Magazine, Orion, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and chosen for Best American Poetry. Benson lives and writes in a former church in the ancestral homelands of the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohicans in upstate NY.
Event venue & nearby stays
Natural History Institute, 126 N Marina St, Prescott, United States
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