Betty's summer reading list title #1: Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Last week I had to take a staycation, welcome-to-summer roadie to Richmond to see the new addition of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and visit one of my favorite trees at Maymont AND a new discovery: indie bookstore in Shockoe Slip FOUNTAIN BOOKS. Ahhhh. It was a great half-day excursion, but the highlight just might have been sitting in that quaint little bookstore for an hour, perusing new titles, favorite authors, a stellar tree book I MUST acquire soon but DIDN'T write down the title, and Ralph Waldo Emerson's book NATURE. Between grant-writing, mothering, working, and going to school I'm not sure when I'll get to "summer reading" lists, but I've started. Emerson's writing are his life are passionate expressions of his love of the natural world. He was radical in urging Americans of his time to be in the joy of beauty and Nature by walking, noticing, breathing.

I share this quote with you:

"The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection... the lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth becomes part of his daily food."

from Ralph Waldo Emerson's (1803-1882) book Nature, Penguin Books (printed on FSC certified paper)

Best,
BWB