Perpetual Youth

No expensive cream or medicine required

"In the woods is perpetual youth.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, 1836

A lot has changed since Emerson wrote this famous line almost 200 years ago, but one thing has not:

We still admire youth.

Sometimes it feels like every other commercial talks about turning back time, banishing our wrinkles, or restoring our hair. This “youth" doesn't seem to be the one that Emerson promised, though.

So what was Emerson talking about when he promised us perpetual youth? If it isn't that treasured “youthful glow,” what is it?

What is youth?

In that first chapter of Nature, Emerson informs us that few people truly see the sun.

It's a weird statement. Obviously we see the flaming ball of fire in the sky.

But we know what he's saying. Yes, the light may enter our eyes, but who really pays attention?

Children.

“The sun illuminates only the eye of the man,” Emerson writes, “but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.”

When I first started my adventures in nature photography, and when I really started to take it more seriously, do it more regularly, and think of it as a little bit more than just a passing hobby, I thought a lot about what qualities make a great nature photographer.

I first thought of patience, but as I considered, that applies to any branch of photography that is candid in nature.

This led me to persistence, which I thought was quite good. With the exception of unfortunate circumstances, at least a wedding or sports photographer knows an event is happening when they pack up that gear and report to the church or the field. (Meanwhile, I cannot even tell you the number of times I left my house to try to photograph a deer, not only not to get a shot, but also not to even see a deer at all!)

I started trying in earnest to photograph a white-tailed deer in Fall of 2023. Finally, in February of 2024, I spotted this deer not far beyond my fence when I was letting the dog out. I crept across the backyard, grabbed my camera from inside, quietly tiptoed across the lawn again and back to the fence opening, and by some miracle, she was still there! I guess I just needed to photograph her on HER terms.

But still my answer didn’t feel quite right. Every artist chases that perfect moment when all the the stars and moon align and the hard work pays off.

Reflecting further, I thought back to the beginning of my journey, when I largely focused on photographing birds. That soon changed, however. On my adventures, I encountered so much more. I realized that if I was just paying attention to the birds, I was missing quite a lot.

One of the best and simultaneously most frustrating things about a child is the constant questioning. Everything is new and awe-inspiring, and I bet if I asked 100 people to tell me a kid’s favorite word, the vast majority would give the same answer.

“Why?”

The more I'm outside, the more I observe, the more I realize I don't know, and the more I want to ask, “Why?”

“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,” Emerson writes. “His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food. In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says, — he is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me.”

As we journey through 2025, I hope that you will share some of your adventures and travel along with me in mine.

We don't have to travel to some exotic destination. My adventures are largely in my own backyard, in my own neighborhood. I am not a super fit adventurer who is going to scale to the top of some faraway mountain and show you the beautiful vistas there.

But I am endlessly curious. It’s what pulls me day in and day out to go back outside, to walk a little farther, to put on my coat when it's cold and I really don’t feel like it, and to investigate the things I find there.

“In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth,” Emerson writes. “Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years.”

If the sights and sounds of nature, the words of great thinkers, and the promise of regaining just a little bit of your youth sound appealing, I hope our paths cross again soon.

Sincerely,

Amanda

Photo at top: The coffee cup image is a photo mockup for a mug available in my store. If you ever want to check out my shop, you will find a link at the top of my page in the tab labeled “shop.”