What is So Special About Nature?
Tunnel View at Yosemite National Park.
The Brewer’s Monardella flower in the foreground with Liberty Cap and Nevada Falls in the background.
Last month we took a trip to Yosemite National Park where I had a pretty big WTF moment. I was standing on a remote path between Vernal and Nevada Falls. Wildflowers dotted the trail, granite domes pushed toward the sky, and thundering waterfalls served as the backdrop to my picturesque view. I stopped for a moment to take it all in. As I did, I felt dwarfed by the magnitude of nature and the vast wildness that surrounded me. I tried to process what I was feeling but I couldn’t find the words.
The beauty I saw moved my emotions and I felt awe-struck and humbled at the same time. You see, we as humans are pretty selfish and our day-to-day actions generally serve to benefit us as individuals. But that moment on the trail reminded me there was something greater at play. I was just a speck, an insignificant object, in a world that was richer, deeper, and more connected than anything I could grasp.
Since then I’ve been trying to understand what it was that made me feel like that. There was something about that moment that had me ask, “What is so special about nature?”Yes, nature, especially these gifts we call national parks, are beautiful and inspiring but what was it that moved me the way it did?
The Merced River in Yosemite.
Initially I kept coming back to its beauty but it’s more than that isn’t it? There are many things in this world that are beautiful. Architecture has given us beautiful buildings. There are too many to name but I’ve visited a few in my travels like Notre Dame Cathedral and the Roman Colleseum. Art also provides endless beauty. The movements from Impressionism to Art Nouveau and Renaissance to Modern Art have created art that is worth millions. Even music provides beauty and elicits emotions of satisfaction and joy. There’s no shortage of beauty that humankind has created. But those things don’t move me like nature does. There has to be something more to it - another layer deeper than beauty that can help explain it. So here’s my attempt to add more meaning.
Maybe it’s evolution. We didn’t create nature and we can’t control it (even though we try). It is wild and untamed. Nature is alive and evolves over time to survive and adapt to the climate and other external factors that we put on it. I’m not educated in this area but I know enough to understand the basic concept of evolution. It’s adaptable and it runs on its own script going through routine cycles of life and death but constantly evolving to survive.
Maybe it’s history. It was created millions of years ago by something other than us. Our science is good and we know a lot about early life on this planet, but do we really know how this was all created? When you start to associate dates to major events such as the ice age or volcanic activity that changed the atmosphere and composition of this planet it’s hard to fully comprehend.
Me getting a huge from a sequoia in Mariposa Grove.
Maybe it’s spiritual. I’m not saying this in a religious sense. More like humans and nature are all made from the same basic elements so maybe we are connected to each other in ways we can’t explain. I’m not an expert on Native American culture but I’ve learned enough to know indigenous peoples are connected to the land and elements in deeper and more meaningful ways than most of us. Their lives and rituals are based on nature so there could be a spiritual connection to nature that today’s people don’t understand or forgot about. This idea isn't new, either. As a result of this trip I started listening to Guardians of the Valley, a book on John Muir and the history of Yosemite. In it, Muir meets Ralph Waldo Emerson, and they spark a friendship rooted in their shared connection to Yosemite. Emerson was a nature lover and a leading figure of Transcendentalism, a philosophical and spiritual movement that emphasized the divine existing within every individual and in nature itself. Nature has been a source of spirituality for a long time.
Me and my daughter (Lauren) on the John Muir Trail in Yosemite.
Maybe it’s our lifestyle. Given advancements in technology and the strain it puts on us as to consume and produce (I touched on this before in a previous post) maybe nature is the antidote for the chaos that technology brings into our lives. I think about how much of my day is spent looking at a screen and how different that Yosemite moment felt from my normal workday. Because we're often confined to our screens, maybe nature's impact on us is more meaningful when we actually do get out and explore it.
None of these explanations fully answer the question but maybe that's the point. I’m sure each of us, given our different backgrounds and personalities, has a different answer to this simple question. The explanations given above are helping me better understand why nature is so special but I feel there is still more to it. To complicate things, this new path as an artist, with nature at the core of what I do, fuels this ongoing internal debate. There is not a day that goes by where I’m not observing nature. I’m always studying flowers, sketching, or working on art and as a result I’m always thinking about my relationship to nature.
So is there a clear answer? I’m not sure. It could take a lifetime of moments, similar to that one in Yosemite, before I get more clarity and figure it out. Honestly, that would be ok with me. I would be just fine searching for the answer by exploring nature and creating my art.
Does nature move you the same way? Do you have additional thoughts on why nature is so appealing? Let me know! Email me at keith@illustratedrealms.com
