Nature’s Depths

This past Friday was the ninth anniversary of the establishment of Nature’s Depths—on November 15, 2015, a pair of posts constituted its public birth. It has been quite a journey for me!

The opening post was entitled “To See the World in a Grain of Sand.” Here are its first paragraphs.

Two centuries ago, the poet William Blake wrote four of the most often quoted lines in English literature. The opening of his Auguries of Innocence is a passage that echoes my own experience.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand,
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an Hour…

To see a world in a grain of sand—to peer so deeply into the nature of any one thing that the riches of the Universe begin to be revealed—that to me is the essence of science as a quest. Not as a profession or a career, not as a niche in complex modern society, but as a quest for understanding one’s deepest nature.

A quest is something deeply personal. You never know where it will lead, or whether that will be a reassuring or a threatening place. No matter, however. After all, you undertake a quest because the rewards of the process itself are so great. Speaking for myself, I have found that the more I have focused on the questing nature of my scientific work, the greater has been the joy, and indeed exhilaration, I have derived from it. I hope that the words and pictures that you will find on these posts will convey some of that joy and exhilaration.

The natural world is all around us, and we are an integral part of it. Just like all other animals, we human beings are nourished by the organisms we eat, and our lives depend on the oxygen of the atmosphere provided by the Earth’s plants and on the warmth provided by the Sun. As far as we know from a scientific point of view, even our conscious experience is dependent on the workings of natural systems—our brains—although we lack any real understanding of how physiology and experience are related.

A total of sixty-five posts have appeared over the nine years since this opening. The topics have ranged from how water rises in a tree from the roots up to leaves or needles that can be hundreds of feet up in the air, to valuing nature, to the role that molecules play in life, to the inner lives of animals, to the impact of remembering that our sun is a star. The most recent posting was entitled “The Wondrous World of Dragons and Damsels” and was all about the complex and amazing lives of dragonflies and damselflies. I have learned a huge amount while exploring such a range of topics!

This exploration is continuing for me with greater intensity than ever, but it is taking an evolving form. One aspect is that I have found myself spending more and more time in nature and in photographing it, especially in ways that try to draw out its beauty and the way it affects us internally. I used to walk for an hour or so several times a week. Now, without even thinking about it, I find myself outside every day, twice and sometimes even three times. The time I spend during these sojourns in nature passes without my awareness, often two hours or even more. The results of my photography feel like gifts. I have no control over what views I will encounter, or over the light that is so central to photography, or over what movements living creatures will perform or the wind will induce. I am simply grateful for what appears in my camera.

This large and profound aspect of my life has led me to start putting together a book in which I try to portray my experiences in nature a way that will be meaningful to the readers. The book’s provisional title is Nature, Beauty, and Spirit. The concept is still evolving, but the titles of the existing chapters indicate the direction:

1. 1. Nature, Beauty, and Spirit
   2. Nature Outside Speaks Within
   3. We Are All One
   4. Earth, Our Home
   5. Flowers and Their Companions

Each chapter carries with it an array of photographs that resonate with the contents. Sometimes they illustrate a specific point, but more often they are simply in the domain of the chapter’s topic. Images of nature have their own language—they speak in a different way than words do—and I want to make sure that I do not get in the way of readers responding to that unspoken language.

Many of the actual topics that I am incorporating in this new undertaking I have already explored in Nature’s Depths. I would not be able to write Nature, Beauty, and Spirit had I not deepened my understanding of both nature and spirit over the nine years of offering observations and thoughts to all of you. Thank you for that opportunity!

There is another parallel effort. During the past year and more, I have been invited a number of times to present a so-called Discourse at the nearby Hindu temple. The Discourse series takes place on Sunday mornings and provides a time for participants to engage with presenters on a wide range of topics in the world of spirit. The presenters most often base their thoughts and teachings on Hindu scripture. I have never felt qualified to do that. I do have a long engagement with Hinduism, starting in the year 1960-61 which Yvonne and I spent in India. Our experience  there had a profound and lasting impact on both of us. However, my experience is nothing like growing up within Hinduism and studying its teachings in an ongoing way, as have most of the other Discourse presenters. For this reason, I generally bring in concepts from other sources, most often science and/or Christianity, and explore how they intertwine with the depths of Hinduism.

Preparing Discourses is an intense process! I have found, however, that the Discourses are also forming the heart of chapters. Sometimes even the titles are the same, like the most recent “We Are All One” and “Earth, Our Home.” These two different modes of presenting key ideas—in a lecture and in a book—are mutually enriching.

So, dear readers of Nature’s Depths, I hope all this will explain to you why I have made the difficult decision to bring Nature’s Depths to a close. Nine years and sixty-five posts have made for a wonderful and deepening journey. Now, however, I find that Nature, Beauty, and Spirit is drawing my full attention. The fact that I recently passed my eighty-fifth birthday also encourages me to concentrate my efforts. The preparation of each Discourse is fully supportive of the process of framing the book’s deepest topics, but working on three major projects at the same time would be quite a challenge!

It is my intention to maintain Nature’s Depths as an active site at least until Nature, Beauty and Spirit is published and probably thereafter as well. I see it as a way of communicating with you from time to time. In addition, I receive comments and sometimes personal queries on pieces that were published in the past, as they are discovered by new readers.  I want to continue to welcome such approaches and respond to them.

Finally, thinking that some of you might be interested in knowing what my Discourses are like, I am taking the liberty of including links to the recordings of all that I have delivered thus far.

When Nature Opens Both the Mind and the Heart

The Role of the Brain in the Search for Truth

Our Brain and Our Inner State

Meditation and the Brain

The Power of Music

Beauty and Spirit

We Are All One

           The link for “Earth, Our Home” is not yet available. When I receive it, I will update this post.

Dear readers, thank you all for your interest and patience, especially over the years since Yvonne’s passing, and for reading this farewell message. I hope that my efforts have been of value to you and that you will continue to explore the depths of nature as you spend time in her presence.

All the very best from a grateful Johnny