Biophilia

"Biophilia, the love of nature and living things, is an essential part of the human condition. The effects of nature’s qualities on health are not only spiritual and emotional but physical and neurological. I have no doubt that they reflect deep changes in the brain’s physiology, and perhaps even its structure."

- Oliver Sacks

As I hiked the other day, I was appreciating how Mother Nature is such a beautiful landscape artist. The rocks are positioned in a wonderful composition that leads the eye from one area to another, with wildflowers of complementary colors - lots of purples and yellows - in between. Mother Nature is the original artist and best landscaper.

I find it interesting that landscape and escape have their endings in common. One dictionary definition of escape reads "to get away". I guess I escape to the landscape! Another definition says "of a plant: to run wild from cultivation". Even the plants escape in a landscape! In fact, the sunflower in this painting is an example of escape, as we don't plant them anymore, they have "run wild from cultivation" and come up where they want to in our garden.

Perhaps escape and landscape were meant to be linked together with common letters because of our desire to "get away" from some of the environments we find ourselves in out of necessity for too many hours.

Oliver Sacks also commented: "The role that nature plays in health and healing becomes even more critical for people working long days in windowless offices, for those living in city neighborhoods without access to green spaces, for children in city schools, or for those in institutional settings such as nursing homes."

Nurture your Biophilia... it's good for you! My wish for you is that you escape to Mother Nature's landscape whether it's a hike or one of my paintings!