Awe

a holistic kind of science: Holmes, Richard. The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science. New York: Vintage Books, 2008.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson was moved: Richardson, Robert D. Emerson: The Mind on Fire. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

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“ ‘I will be a naturalist’ ”: Emerson, Ralph W. The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Volume IV, 1832–1834. Edited by Alfred R. Ferguson. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1964, 272–75.

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“endless forms most beautiful”: Ball, Philip. Patterns in Nature: Why the Natural World Looks the Way It Does. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016. This book offers a stunning example of the sacred geometries of nature and their deep evolutionary design, and how they engage sophisticated patterns of reasoning, a long-standing interest of Emerson’s. Fractal patterns in nature, such as in mountain ranges, reveal how repetition of forms at different scales is a law of life. Spiral patterns evoke thinking about temporal patterns of growth, that so much in life, and life itself, begins in some germinal moment and spirals outward into vastness. Nature’s part-whole relations may reveal how we are always part of larger systems.

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the “strange sympathies”

: Wilson, E. O. Biophilia: The Human Bond with Other Species. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984.

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There are robust communities: The awe we feel for different parts of the natural world has stirred scientific discovery, lifelong passion, and deep community. Out of his awe and wonder for clouds, Gavin Pretor-Pinney has created a society that tracks their marvels, the Cloud Appreciation Society, and this awe-inspiring book: Pretor-Pinney, Gavin. The Cloudspotter’s Guide: The Science, History, and Culture of Clouds. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. Out of his love of water and surfing, Wallace J. Nichols has created a movement that enables and studies the benefits of being near water. Nichols, Wallace J. Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2014.

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And gardens: Through her work in the 1850s with injured soldiers in the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale came to view gardens as a form of health care. Today, scientists have documented many of gardening’s benefits, from increased vitamin D to reduced stress-related EEG activity of the brain. Thompson, Richard. “Gardening for Health: A Regular Dose of Gardening.” Clinical Medicine (London) 18, no. 3 (June 2018): 201–5. https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmedicine.18-3-201. PMID: 29858428; PMCID: PMC6334070.

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Should you encounter flowers: Haviland-Jones, Jeanette, Holly H. Rosario, Patricia Wilson, and Terry R. McGuire. “An Environmental Approach to Positive Emotions: Flowers.” Evolutionary Psychology 3 (2005): 104–32.

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The scents in the garden: Soudry, Y., Cedric Lemogne, D. Malinvaud, S. M. Consoli, and Pierre Bonfils. “Olfactory System and Emotion: Common Substrates.” European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Diseases 128, no. 1 (2011): 18–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anorl.2010.09.007. Epub January 11, 2011. PMID: 21227767.

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Or the more social needs: Anderson, Cameron, John A. D. Hildreth, and Laura Howland. “Is the Desire for Status a Fundamental Human Motive? A Review of the Empirical Literature.” Psychological Bulletin 141, no. 3 (2015): 574–601.

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