biophilia

sunrise: 7:08

today's sky show was all about pre-dawn, more than dawn itself:

...when the sun actually showed itself, it was rather subdued and unobtrusive:

I like developing this familiar relationship with sunrise.  My newly developed associations with the outdoors made a passage in the book I'm reading catch my eye.  It's The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner (very entertaining so far).  He introduced me to a new word, though it's not a new concept - biophilia.  Literally "the love of life" or of living systems, biophilia suggests that there is an instinctive, biologically based connection between human beings and all other living things on the planet.

A lovely idea.  But I'll take it even further, because I don't suppose that the sky and all of its various atmospheric and meteorological phenomena are considered living systems.  I do feel that human beings are far more woven into the interplays of the natural world - living and non-living - than we realize.

I have been a spiritual explorer for much of my life.  Though I love to talk about religion, I hesitate to talk too much about God, since that human, English word has so many different meanings to so many people.  I believe deeply in the concept of a divine, spiritual center that is accessible to humans, and beneficial.  Many of those moments in my life when I have felt closest to that divinity have been on mountaintops, or standing at the edge of the sea, or on a frozen lake, or watching the sun rise, or set.

Someone once told me that "tree-hugging" wasn't just a sarcastic term for those crazy nature hippies; hugging a tree really makes you feel grounded, connected to the earth and living systems.  I tried it out in the back yard the other day, but before I could feel my connection to the earth a dog jumped on me.  They get worried when I do strange things.

In any case, Edward O. Wilson's (the man who proposed the biophilia hypothesis) theories may be controversial, but I am a believer.