Most of us have lost our way in nature at one time or another. Light pollution blots out the stars in the night sky overhead, electronics, not fields and streams, hold sway over younger generations, and sprawl is claiming forests and meadows that once were the playgrounds of after-school youth.

Tristan Gooley has been trying to lead us back into nature with a series of books on how to “read water,” how to “taste direction,” and even how to “use spiders’ webs as a compass.”

Gooley’s latest effort, The Nature Instinct, teaches us what Daniel Boone no doubt mastered as a youngster. He describes how to tell north from south just by looking at a tree, how to navigate in unfamiliar terrain either by stars overhead or the position of the sun, and even how to pick up signals from livestock or wildlife tied to direction or danger.

But…how many of us would make the time to learn these lessons when cellphones can double as compasses, when Google knows just about everything, when we can ask “smart speakers” any question that pops into mind?

“It is a fair question, but I think it perhaps springs from a belief that people will only dedicate time to things that are necessary or have utility,” Gooley answered when I posed that question. “Most of our leisure time is dedicated to the enjoyment of non-productive pursuits: TV, film, crime fiction, computer games, Sudoku, crosswords, quizzes... these are just a random collection of things people find time for. Why do they do it? Because they are enjoyable or satisfying—not because they are necessary.

“Allowing our brain to return to its first purpose, solving nature’s puzzles, can be more enjoyable and satisfying than all of the above. Plus, you get to be in nature,” he pointed out.

Gooley can you lead you back to nature if you’re willing to invest the time, and are willing to shoulder the course load his books provide. The Nature Instinct is scheduled to be available Oct. 2.