Bucolic dreams
As a child I used to have these incredibly vivid dreams — or fantasies, really — about nature. Usually they involved huge rolling fields of bright green grass, sometimes dotted with wildflowers, or streams meandering through a forest. Always there was this sense of being immersed in nature and being connected to it in a deeper sense than one can ever be in the real world. I still feel to this day a great yearning to completely let go of my physical self and become a part of nature. I’m not sure what that really involves, but I know that when I achieve it I will feel complete.
There are a few distinct images I recall from books and movies that captured precisely these scenes in my head. The first is from L.M. Montgomery’s Emily series. I read these when I was around 12, and the scenes of her secret trysts in the rambling wilds of New Moon are clear as day in my head still. It sounded like the most magical place, so full of life and color, and so far removed from the dusty desert where I grew up.
The scene in The Neverending Story where the horse Artax drinks from a stream while Atreyu naps in a bed of grass and flowers was about 20 seconds long but is by far my most vivid memory from the film. It looked exactly like paradise to me.
And later on when I read Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood, a scene where Toru and Naoko walk through a meadow instantly transported and left me there long after the characters had moved on. Though the book was dark and disturbing at times, this scene was a vision of bucolic perfection.
It makes me wonder, is there a primal part of us all that just yearns to be at one with the wild?
I went on many a journey when I was younger to try to fulfil this need simmering within me — holidays on a farm, weekend picnics in the bush — but no matter how much I connected with nature I was always left unsatisfied. It’s like taking a photo of an amazing sunset when really you just want to wrap your arms around that sunset and take it home with you.
A clear blue sky and a fresh breeze will still light this spark in me. Immediately I just want to run wild and free through a field somewhere, but on a Brooklyn sidewalk all I can do is lift my head to the sun and slowly, deeply inhale the fresh(ish) air. I guess that’ll have to do.
Biophilia is a collective of plant professionals. It is also a publication. We publish new articles, photos, and how-to’s here several times a week. We welcome submissions, feedback, seed packets and dandelion fluff. Kindly address all those things to >> plantsvnature@gmail.com.
