This week’s explorations at the intersection of nature, art and wisdom.
Humans + Nature = Art?
Let’s start with this lovely video about the Dehesa, in the SW Iberian peninsula, where trees, wildlife and humans have co-existed sustainably. Who says art isn’t created here? Those plains, those trees. Humans + nature = art?
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7AAHNxuPj0
Because someone he loved was out there
Remember when you were two years old? Five years old? One of the secrets of finding (again) the joy in life is finding the joy in the small things. See this gorgeous poem by Naomi Shihab Nye.
Small is big
This quote from Rainer Maria Rilke:
“If you will stay close to nature, to its simplicity, to the small things hardly noticeable, those things can unexpectedly become great and immeasurable.“
Rainer Maria Rilke, “Letters to a Young Poet”
Fusions and mergers
Fascinating article in The Marginalian about Lynn Margulis and symbiosis. With lessons for our own future?
Link: https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/12/21/lynn-margulis-symbiotic-planet
Growing art
How gardeners at the High Line in New York “edit” to maintain the naturalized landscape.
“The plantings on the High Line are meant to change. They mimic the dynamics of a wild landscape. Plants out-compete one another, spread or diminish in number. They drift in the environment to where they can best fill their niches, and their individual seasonal cycles become part of a whole picture. Over the last five years, the work of the High Line gardeners has been to facilitate and enhance the natural processes of growth, change, and movement in the landscape, and at the same time maintain the integrity of the original design by [Piet] Oudolf and James Corner Field Operations.”
From How the High Line Gardeners Keep it Wild
Link: https://www.thehighline.org/blog/2014/06/10/how-the-high-line-gardeners-keep-it-wild/
Fractal beauty
Trees in winter are more beautiful than trees in summer because you can see their fractal structure – the same fractal structure that forms our lungs. This picture is from the Ladybird series of books for children.
