E.O. Wilson gave a name to what every gardener already knew: that the pull toward living things is not a preference but a need — something deep in the architecture of the self that cannot be satisfied by screen light and climate control alone. Nasreddin's relationship with his donkey was not merely practical transportation; it was his entire ongoing negotiation with the animate world. We are, at the cellular level, part of nature — and the body knows this, even when the schedule doesn't.
Each step builds on the last.