We Are Hardwired For Connection

On April 29 at 8:38am my husband, Andrew, and I became the proud parents of Miles Owen Fisher. We named our son, Miles, because my husband grew up on Miles Road in the town of Walden on 6 acres of land where he spent his childhood in nature learning the names of trees, birds, plants, and animals. The road he grew up on is named after one of Chattanooga’s most famous authors, Emma Bell Miles.

If you are new to the Chattanooga area, you may not have heard of our very own beloved Emma Bell Miles. Like Henry David Thoreau, Miles was a naturalist. She loved being in the created world so much that she left St. Louis School of Art and gave up opportunities to study art in New York and Paris, so that her soul could return to the mountains of Walden’s Ridge.

During her years living on Signal Mountain she worked as an artist, poet, writer, and short story author who lived from 1879-1919. In her lifetime Emma Bell Miles faced many hardships including poverty, the death of her only two siblings, the death of her four year old son to scarlet fever, and her own death at age 39 from tuberculosis. Despite these challenges, Miles was able to publish, The Spirit of the Mountains, which was the first book of its kind to chronicle Southern Appalachian culture.

Emma Bell Miles was also an accomplished poet. Here is a poem she wrote called, “The Shadow.”

The night is lowering early;
It is full of exultant storm;
But the cabin door stands open.
And its light shines red and warm.

The baby boy on the doorstep
Looks out on the tossing pines
And laughs at the dark horizon.
Where the fitful lightning shines.

For within is his mother’s shadow,
Cast large on the rough roof-beams;
It hovers the steaming kettles.
It moves with the wavering flames.

So lies the dark world before him.
But behind stands ever his home.
And his heart shall lie filled with its firelight.
Wherever his feet may roam.

And whether he lose or conquer.
And whether he rise or fall,
he is sure of the faithful Shadow
That loves him ever and all.

I hope that my son, Miles, will always be sure of my faithful shadow that will love and follow him all the days of his life. Emma Bell Miles reminds us in this poem that her baby boy will face inevitable hardships and yet wherever he goes on his journey and whatever challenges he encounters, he is assured of the love of his mom that stands behind him and before him.

As I read the work of Emma Bell Miles there seems to be an invitation to remember that God, our fellow humanity, and nature are a shadow that follow us and invite us into a relationship. In a poem Miles wrote when she felt homesick for the mountains of East Tennessee, while she was a student in St. Louis, she said, “Take me back and let me rest on the Forest-mother’s breast, Where my lonely, longing heart must ever turn.”
In the midst of our current loneliness epidemic, our culture is spending more time connected to smart phones and social media and less time connecting to oneself, nature, one another, and the Divine.

As I enjoy the bonding of holding, rocking, and loving on my newborn son, Miles, it is a reminder we are hardwired for connection. My faithful shadow will love this boy all of his days, but just as my shadow will follow him, I believe there is Divine shadow who pursues and loves me. I am reminded of the words of Psalm 91 that call us to rest in the shadow of the Almighty. And when I take a walk with my 4 year old daughter, Isabelle, I can feel the shadow of the trees and birds and the words of Emma Bell Miles inviting me to slow down and surrender to the “Forest-Mother’s breast.”

A version of this article was originally published in http://www.mountainmirror.com