John Muir has many descriptive titles. He’s been called a naturalist, author, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, environmental philosopher, inventor, mountaineer, co-founder of the Sierra Club, and Father of our National Parks. His biographer Steven Holmes, added another title: the patron saint of 20th Century American environmental activity. So, who was this extraordinary man?
John Muir (1838-1914) was born in Scotland and immigrated to the U.S. with his family when he was eleven. The family settled on a farm in Portage, Wisconsin. While attending the University of Wisconsin, he signed up for a botany course. In class one day, under a towering locust tree, a fellow student picked a flower from the tree and explained how this gigantic tree was a member of the pea family. Muir wrote, “This fine lesson charmed me and sent me flying to the woods and meadows with wild enthusiasm.”
Muir eventually dropped out of college and enrolled in “the university of the wilderness.” He walked 1,000 miles from Indiana to Florida, enjoying and studying nature the entire way. Having contracted malaria in Florida, he was prevented from walking to South America as he had planned. When he recovered, he walked instead to Calfornia where he worked at several jobs to support himself. Muir saw nature not merely as a practical benefit for humankind–trees to give us lumber, mountains to give us coal. He saw nature as something valuable for its own sake. He also appreciated nature for the spiritual qualities it possessed. Seeing Yosemite for the first time, he wrote: “No temple made by hands can compare with this.”
Muir was keenly aware of the connectedness of all things, writing, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” He fought to save areas from human development. The preservation of Yosemite as a national park is one of his greatest achievements. In 1880 he married Louisa Strentzel with whom he had two daughters. For ten years he helped manage his father-in-law’s 2600 acre orchard in California. But he always yearned to return to the wilderness on a regular basis. His understanding wife would shoo him away so he could get his dose of nature. Sometimes, he took one of his daughters with him.
When Muir was offered a teaching position at Harvard, he turned it down saying, “I never for a minute thought of giving up God’s big show for a profship.” His later years were devoted to writing, an occupation he found challenging–even though he wrote over 300 articles and 10 major books. He once complained, “This business of writing books is a long, tiresome, endless job.” He thought prose was “a weak instrument for the reality he wished to convey.” He believed, “One day’s exposure to mountains is better than a cartload of books.” Thank goodness, his wife supported and encouraged his writing, for even today his essays and books are still widely read. I will close with one of my favorite quotes from this remarkable man: “Everyone needs beauty as well as bread, places to play and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.”
For reflection:
Have you ever heard of John Muir before? If so, when and where?
Did anything stand out for you about John Muir?
Have you experienced the healing power of nature in your life? When and where?
I chose for our video today Susan Boyle singing the refrain from the hymn “How Great Thou Art.” The nature scenes are just the kind that John Muir devoted his life to preserving for future generations.
(Disclaimer: I am recommending only Susan Boyle’s video. I am not recommending the other videos that automatically pop up after this video. Viewer discretion is advised.)
I invite you to write a comment below on the refection, the photos, the video…
27 Responses
Thank you for writing about John Muir. We need his wisdom and vision now.
I had the privilege of visiting Muir Woods a number of years ago. It is the grandest cathedral I have ever visited.
Whenever I am upset, if I can take a walk in nature, I am restored.
I love the photos of nature in the Sierra Club calendars, they sustain me even when I can’t get out to nature.
Good morning 🌄
Thank you for this reminder of how important nature is to our well being.
Praise God for His beautiful creation.
Have a blessed week
Wonderful post today, Sister Melannie. No more need to be said.
What a peaceful way to start the day. It reminds me to leave my phone and iPad down, get outside and just breathe and see!
Thanks so very much for the reflection today about John Muir. I have been healed many times by nature. It is a blessing to be able to enjoy the gifts of our loving God in ALL of creation.
Thanks so very much for the beautiful video too, we are so fortunate to have so many beautifl scenes on this planet.
Many blessings to all who share this site with Melannie.
Peace to all.
Thank you once again, Sr. Melannie.
I am captivated by this article and can’t wait to read more of his writings as well as hiking through dirt paths and enjoying more of God’s green and dusty earth!!
No one words express the peace I found in today’s blog. Thank you, Sr. Melannie.
Sister,
This was a timely reminder of John Muir. His story is fascinating and his father’s attention to scripture became a foundation for his worldview. Where would we be without the Sierra Club?
Peace.
Good morning,
I had heard of him, but knew very little, so I appreciate the mini-biography you gave. Susan Boyle’s voice is as pure as a crystaline lake….what a beautiful back ground for all those gorgeous pictures.
I was never a lover of drones, but the pictures that can be taken by them are often beyond belief…..letting us see parts of the world that we would otherwise never be able to gaze at.
All of this adds to the “Greatness” of our God!
I will be humming/singing this song all day long…not bad for a Monday morning, I’d say…
Blessings on you all,
Mary
Our visit to all National Parks have enriched us mentally, emotionally, bodily and most importantly spiritually.
The lst night in Yosemite in fall 2007 was folllowing a rainy drive there then
Snow at the entrance. At one am and a clear sky , I stepped outside to see thousands of stars and I could hear human beings in their tents in the valley below.
I logged in a comment in-the visitor guest book and read other comments.
One said that he slept on the stoop outside the kitchen the lst night!
because of the stars.
Another mentioned Our Lady of “ Foresta” and included a photo of a tree trunk on the property which endured the fire that area known as Foresta a few years earlier. It was mostly meadow then with tall stumps of burned trees.
We all walked to find her in the morning.
Thank you John Muir for making us aware of our earthly treasures. And Thant you, sister for this blog and. For a Susan Boile singing softly, my favorite hymn.
Usually it is “ belted out” in church. This was sublime!
Marilyn Woidat
Marilyn Woidat
Thank you for writing about this inspiring man. I visited Yosemite in early June with a Road Scholar group. John Muir is right. Words don’t begin to describe the beauty. You just have to experience it.
This past weekend I went back to Villa Maria retreat center and it brought up memories of the retreat you gave there last October. When I woke up this morning I had to listen to “Everything is Holy Now.” Peace always, Donna
Thank you for your blog. I have never felt closer to God then I am with nature. Be it forest or dessert, the bottom of the sea or in the sky. What a great planet it would be without humanity.
Thanks for telling the story of John Muir. I often feel closer to God as I walk my little dog in the quiet of our little village with the deer hiding from us.
Nature is the thing that calls to me! I enjoy the calmness it brings me and getting an opportunity to see the beauty which is often taken for granted. I am blessed that I get a chance to camp every weekend April-October to enjoy this even further. It is my happy place! I get to enjoy the quiet and see all types of animals. The hummingbirds are my favorite. And in the winter, I always get the itch to get outside. I am someone who wouldn’t survive if I couldn’t be in nature.
Thank you Sr. Melannie for catching us up on the remarkable gift of John Muir. I first learned of him when I was in grade school and with a young friend came upon pictures of parks & nature with captions by John Muir. Ken Burns produced a beautiful series about him for PBS years ago which was outstanding.
I’ve always been drawn to nature and seek the beauty and quiet found walking in it since I was very young. How can anyone witness the gifts of our world without believing in the great creator?
I have a book on the life of John Muir and for some reason I never finished reading it. I am now inspired to pick it up again. My late husband and I loved spending vacations visiting several of our national parks.
I am blessed to live in NH with its mountains, rivers, lakes, streams and dirt roads to meander. Nature is my peaceful, happy place. It is easy to find God there. “The mountains are calling and I must go”. (Muir)
Thank you, Sr. Melannie, for such an inspiring topic.
The photos in the video are beyond beautiful!
I started reading about Muir in 68 or 69 . The National Geographic Magazine. ” John Muir’s America ” It drew me to him. I went through his home in 1984 in Martinez California. Read his biography ” Son of the Wilderness ” by Linnie Marsh Wolfe fascinating . I give John Miur and John Denver credit for influencing my life to this very day !!
Unlike Thomas, I was a late bloomer to John Muir. Before visiting Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon in May 2024, I found a recent biography about John Muir’s life and leadership for God’s Creation. “Guardians of the Valley” by Dean King is an excellent read.
Thanks again, Sr Melannie!
Thank you for this wonderful blog. So appropriate to share during this Season of Creation.
I visited the Muir Woods National Monument and walked through those beautiful tall Redwood Trees. I did not know that he came from the Midwest or much about his life. The video was amazing and brought tears to my eyes for all the beautiful places there are in the world. Thank you for today’s Sunflower Seed.
Thank you Sr. Melannie for this week’s blog. I discovered John Muir when one of my student’s family gifted me with a calendar put out by the Sierra Club. The pictures inspired many meditative moments. My fondest spots in nature are at your Notre Dame property in Chardon and the dunes at Sable Lake in Grand Marquis, Michigan.God has truly blessed us with truly beautiful places to refresh our souls and bring us closer to Him.
May God bless you Sr. Melannie and each of us.
Thank you for all of that today….
Thank you Sister Melannie for the Sunflower Seed Blog about John Muir. It was very interesting to learn about him. I forgot that in his day you either walked everywhere or maybe you had horses and a wagon. So when I read the part about him walking from Florida to California I realized that he was able to appreciate the world around himself way more that we do now. God gave us Nature to Love, Appreciate and take care of! If only we would stop traveling by planes, trains or whatever and walk !! We could admire what the Good Lord above gave us instead!! May the Lord show us all Mercy and Love. I wish you Many Great Blessings Sister Melannie. Amen 🙏!!
Hearing about John Muir has provided me with incentive to head out to the woods! Better than a cartload of books! Thank you, Sister!
I thought John Muir was a musician alive today. They both do beautiful work; both the one I had in mind and this one. What beautiful quotes! He had Franciscan spirituality.
It reminds of the beauty and fulfillment we are not aware of because, instead of taking a dirt road once in a while, we prefer to be where we can sit down and look at our phones.
Lord hear our prayer, Amen.