From the author of the popular For most of her youth and early adulthood, Tara Couture had a deep fear of death. When her mother left the house, Tara would beg her to stay, certain that death was right around the corner. As the threat loomed in her mind, distraction in its many forms became her only relief. In her twenties, determined to manifest her long-time dream of owning a farm, Tara worked alongside a cattleman, Richard, whose perspectives on life and death would come to transform her own. When Tara found herself in the passenger seat of Richard’s truck out on the Alberta prairie, in search of the bison herd from which they would harvest an animal, she could hardly believe what she had signed up for. But even more surprising was the realization that experience awakened in her: that life and death are inextricably connected. When we shield ourselves from death--or from any of the hard things in life--we close ourselves off to the beauty and richness of a life fully lived. <Radiance of the Ordinary< is a collection of stories about leaning into that beauty and richness--through the work we choose to engage with, the way we steward the land and make our homes, the food we put into our bodies, the relationships we cultivate, and the attention we pay to the ordinary moments. After all, we never do know how many of those precious moments we have left to savor.

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Tara Couture

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From the author of the popular Slowdown Farmstead Substack: a raw, poignant collection of essays about cultivating authenticity in this age of great pretend.

When she was young, Tara Couture had a deep fear of death. In her twenties, determined to manifest her long-time dream of owning a farm, she worked alongside a cattleman whose perspectives on life and death would come to transform her own. When she found herself in the passenger seat of the cattleman’s truck out on the Alberta prairie, in search of the bison herd from which they would harvest an animal, she could hardly believe this was the life she was living. But even more surprising was the realization the experience awakened in her: that life and death are inextricably connected. When we shield ourselves from death—or from any of the hard things in life—we close ourselves off to the beauty and richness of a life fully lived.

Full of evocative prose that elicits the smells, tastes, cold winds, and sticky summer sweat of Tara’s place in the world, Radiance of the Ordinary elegantly explores the moments both complex and mundane, laden with grief and light with wonderment—from butchering and birthing cows to motherhood and the tragic loss of her youngest daughter. Throughout, the reader is reminded that the work we choose to engage with, the way we make our homes, the food we put into our bodies, the relationships we nurture, and the attention we pay to the ordinary moments—this is what matters. Taken together, these essays provide an unforgettable meditation on what it means to be alive in the twenty-first century.