Feeling, Knowing, Beauty: A Naturalist’s Journal and Journey into the Local Landscape

“Let me grow you a garden. Let me tell you a story. Let me weave you a world out of aster and goldenrod, ink and honey, so that we may wander and grow together.” The natural world is messy, resilient, beautiful. Layers of mysteries humanity unspools in search of ‘absolute truths,’ whatever those may be. Western scientific thought favours impartial data, but in each of us there lie deeper, more personal ‘truths’: Childhood memories of bark against bare knees, scraps of poetry, jokes and drawings and stories. As an artist and anthropologist, I have to ask, could we not connect more deeply with the natural world— learn more and more meaningfully — by approaching truth instead as beautiful complexity? My journey to answer this question begins with Quercus macrocarpa (the Bur Oak) in a series of studies which explore the plant along all the branches of my being. So please, wander with me. Read, reflect, and share what you’ve learned and know with those around you, experiencing truth and meaning as only humans can.