Ralph Waldo Emerson On Why You Need to Put Down The Phone And Touch Grass
"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson was a prolific essayist and philosopher who led the transcendentalist movement. He championed individualism and man’s profound connection to nature. This quotation from his mid 19th century essay Education explores man’s divine and essential connection to the natural world.
While the concept can seem trite and alien to a 21st century reader, perhaps it demonstrates the need to re-acquaint ourselves with “the stream of power and wisdom which animates all whom it floats.” In many ways, the last 10-15 years have heightened my appreciation for our desperate need to reconnect with nature. Strange things when you divorce yourself from natural law. What lessons do we learn from “natural consequences?” “Natural rewards?” “Simple pleasures?” Difficult but unavoidable “facts of life?” Maybe I’m making too much out of it, I’ll tell you this much. My favorite people are invariably kind to animals.
This drawing is from my illustrated book On Nature: Collected Works & Poems.
About the Art
“Thinking about nature as a single living, breathing thing brought me to an animistic place. In this case the grassy hill is also a buck hiding in plain sight, the tree branches suggesting antlers.”
Art Evan Robertson. All rights reserved.