“Beauty is simply reality seen with the eyes of love.”

—Rabindranath Tagore

Dear reader, this morning I was sitting for tea and thinking of you. Whether you’re newer to reading this newsletter or whether you have been on this journey with me for years, I’m grateful that you’re here. This edition marks a special one: the 250th edition of The Overview. As such, I thought I would take this opportunity to ground us in its raison d’être: why I write to you.

In order to do that, I need to zoom out for a moment, to the purpose of all our work at Atmos: to re-enchant people with nature and our shared humanity. In my eyes, to be enchanted with something is to behold it with reverence, which implies love, awe, and respect. Enchantment requires a degree of surrender, allowing ourselves to be humbled by beauty. It’s a portal to a deeper sense of empathy and belonging with our world and every being that’s part of it. 

By contrast, I believe that disenchantment is one of the greatest threats we face today. A loss of that sense of wonder for our world breeds apathy. And many of us are subject to a confluence of forces that do exactly that: whether it’s the commodification of our planet through late stage capitalism, or technology designed to keep our gaze fixed to our phones rather than the life around us. Resisting disenchantment requires the regular practice of opening our eyes.

This newsletter has become my own practice. In every edition, I have attempted to illuminate the beauty of nature, from the porousness of frogs to the fortitude of elephants. And while I do try to glean lessons we might learn from them, my intention is mainly to convey the magic of the many species and processes that make up the Earth, and let that speak for itself. My hope is that this enchantment might inspire a deeper connection to nature, and motivation to act on its behalf.

When I talk about enchantment, I want to be clear that I’m not talking about a hope-washed denial of reality. In selecting the 100 editions that became The Overview book released this year (if you haven’t gotten your copy yet, we still have some in stock in our shop), it was painfully obvious to me the chapters of my life that were marred by malaise. In fact, more often than not, these newsletters come from me seeking guidance from nature in order to navigate life’s challenges: the brutality of metamorphosis, the inescapability of death, and so on. 

Enchantment means embracing all aspects of life: the dark and the light. It’s about becoming more deeply attuned to nature and finding beauty in everything contained within its circle. And that includes humanity. That has been, perhaps, the most surprising aspect of writing this newsletter: in every comment left or letter written back, you’ve taught me how universal many of our experiences are. Looking for beauty in nature has shown me the beauty of humanity, too.

What if I told you that you didn’t have to save the world, only love it? What if love will save the world? Love not as an empty word, but as a spell that binds us together in responsibility and action. Love that urges us to stand up for one another and this planet, that sees every magical incarnation of life as beautiful and worthy. Love that demands an end to bombs and war, that listens to the Earth’s cries for help. Love that we have to choose every single day.