On a recent news story on the radio, a man declard that "smelling pumpkin spice is like smelling fall." While that may be true in the U.S. today, a more traditional indication of fall's arrival has been the first small burst of cooler weather. And an even more reliable indication that we are into autumn has been the changing color of leaves.
It was leaves that became the namesake of this website "Wisdom in Leaves" -- because the English word "leaves" can also refer to the pages of books, in which we sometimes hope to find wisdom. The initial article published on this website (a decade ago) still speaks to our desires to learn from both Nature and the thoughts in writing of other human beings.
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In June of 1877, a British family -- elderly grandfather, his wife, their grown son, baby grandson, and a nursemaid -- had all traveled on an outing to the ancient site of Stonehenge. It was the sort of outing a Victorian family of the latter 1800's would do to enjoy being outdoors in the warmer Spring weather.
However, while this family was at the ancient site of Stonehenge, consisting of a ring of immense standing stones constructed maybe four thousand years ago, the elderly grandfather got permission from the guard to do something probably no tourist before had requested -- to dig into the ground around some of the stones. As odd as that request was, the guard could hardly refuse it. For, after all, that bearded grandfather was none other than Charles Darwin.
What Darwin was looking for in the ground was, of all things... earthworms! Charles Darwin's interest in earthworms had begun forty years earlier, and it would continue to the very end of his life, becoming the subject of his very last book.
It was in fact Charles Darwin who made the first detailed discoveries about how earthworms are one of the major aerators and one of the primary fertilizers of soil. Darwin wrote of earthworms: "It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures."
When the story of Darwin's discovery about evolution is told, the animals most often mentioned are those giant tortoises and unearthly-looking iguanas of the Galapagos Islands. And so I enjoy reading about how he devoted such interest and care to the small, unappreciated worms right beneath our feet. I have a mental image of the bearded old man on his knees, gently browsing through the leaves in order to uncover the living creatures before they escaped into their burrows. Also, browsing through the leaves in order to find insight.This rarely-told story of Darwin and the worms symbolizes in a way what I would like to accomplish with my writing on this on-line periodical. I would like to take time to browse through aspects of Nature. I would like to pause to look at Nature thoughtfully as a way of gaining a humble perspective on the world we live in and what we humans are.
I would like to get at the nexus of Nature and spirituality, drawing also on the best thought of our religious traditions. And so, I would also like to turn over other kinds of leaves -- the pages of books. I want to leaf through my favorite books so that I might re-read those quotations that most nurture my spirit. Nature and books, earth and human thoughts. Weaving the two together in a variety of ways.
What experiences of Nature, or what words about Nature in a book, most touch your mind and heart?
