The Story of My Heart

The Story of My Heart is an autobiography, first published in 1883, by English nature writer, essayist and journalist Richard Jefferies. It is no true autobiography, but the story of a soul's awakening. Richard Jefferies describes how, leaving aside all the preconceptions of past and future, he placed himself in the eternal Now, and allowed the Now to become his soul's only guide and source of nourishment. Thus freed from the usual blocks to awareness, Jefferies' senses became windows for his soul, through which the natural world could be seen in its true, dazzling brilliance. Jefferies describes how this vision reflected back into his consciousness an awareness of his soul's eternity, and its immense, unquenchable longing and love for what he called 'soul-life'.