The Power of Nature
or Ruminations on “The Secret Garden”
‘If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.’
I was reading Frances Burnett’s novel, The Secret Garden. It is a children’s novel (or at least categorized as such), but I wanted to find out what it was about, as it is often touted as one of the classics of early English literature — and Mary Lennox gave me more than I bargained for.
The story offers more than a quaint tale of childhood discover — it is about a profound exploration of personal growth and the powers of healing that nature gives. The secret garden is but a metaphor for the riches that Mother Earth holds away from our urban cities and societies.
Of course, I am not saying y’all need to drop everything and march off into the forests.
But it is highly beneficial for us to witness greenery and be in contact with nature for at least a few hours a week. Being in green spaces brings about a drop in cortisol levels, a better synchronization of our melatonin cycles, and as is often said in the novel, “the fresh air would do you some good”.
When I was reading about this topic, I found an interesting hypothesis put forward by American biologist Edward O. Wilson, on Biophilia. It was a developing (and slightly vague) theory of evolutionary psychology, which states that humans have an innate connection to nature and the environment, and actively seek connections with it.
The point is not about the theory or the exact science behind it, but more so of what it could mean.
And they don’t seem to be just poetic musings — recent scientific studies are increasingly showing how the innate reflected colors from chlorophyll pigments help reduce heart rates and the rhythmic sounds of nature (e.g. Waves, rain) and soothing sounds (e.g. Rustling of wind) enhance and maintain synchronized waves in the brain — and are most probably developed due to our direct evolution beside the greenery of the world.
Interesting Fact:
Green is often said to be the most restful color for the eyes, because the cones (“color receptors”) most receptive to green, M-Cones, make up 32% of the cones present, and green happens to lie right in the middle of the color spectrum — thus it is often said to require lesser energy to process.
The “secret garden” is almost a metaphor in the most subtle of ways — on the surface a refuge for so many people in the book’s Yorkshire-moor-castle setting, but deeper than it is about restoring our connection to nature — and really, like Mary, we must learn that the path to such restoration is in healing, growing and tending to the little things in life.
Get a small plant and tend to it every day, take a walk in a green space, walk home along the long path through the park — perhaps, there you might find your own little solace, peace and growth — as little as a few minutes would do you some good.
8/10/24
