Last Child in the Woods

So when it comes right down to it, i'm essentially a lazy person. If i can sleep in in the morning, i will (i totally take advantage of Doug's good nature). If i can stay in a recumbent position whilst someone fetches me a glass of water, i'll take it. If i can sit and watch a show while cross stitching, i'm pretty psyched. Right now, my house is a disaster and i don't have any plans to tidy up anytime soon (i'd rather sit on my duff and blog).

I've realized since we've moved to Colorado that when it comes to doing things outdoors, it's got to be uber-easy, or it ain't gonna happen. When we decided to move to CO, we were excited about all of the great outdoors that awaited us. Oh, the hikes we'd go on! Oh, the sights we'd see! So close to so many national parks. Lots of state parks. Just oodles and oodles to do.

Well, in reality, if it's not right outside my back door, i'm going to find it difficult to motivate myself to get out there and do it. I remember talking to my mother-in-law about our impending move and what we were excited about as we were walking around the lake behind my house. I remember she looked at me and said something to the effect of, "This place seems pretty ideal." And, yes, i appreciated the nature we had in Maryland but i was excited about what CO had to offer even more. (She also told me the cheapest and easiest way to keep your storage under control is to simply get a big garage. Wise woman. Did i listen?). What can i say? I'm an Army brat and i get some serious wanderlust. i have a hard time wanting to stay in one place for more than a few years. Antsy. What's next? What's next?

But none of this is really the point of this post.

Have any of you read Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv? Well, truth be told, me neither. But i did attend a lecture he gave at the Pikes Peak Center last weekend. Kristen invited me and it sounded really interesting (and a night out and Vietnamese for dinner was really appealing, too).

In a nutshell, his book is about how being amongst nature positively effects people. How too many children today suffer from what he dubs "Nature-Deficit Disorder." We are indoors. Where it's safe. With our technology. How so many of the problems so many people and children have today could be lessened by spending some good old-fashioned time outdoors. Spending time in the dirt. Working the soil. Picking up rocks and finding the bugs under them. Feeling a connection to the Earth that you can only get by being a participant with it. How it can decrease depression. How it can help lessen the symptoms of ADHD and other behavioral problems (and no, he doesn't claim that should be the only therapy. Just in addition to whatever else the kid may need).

And so much more.

This presentation was "brought to us" by the National Park Service. And it really did inspire me and motivate me.

Here's the deal--I've found myself not going outside at all on some days. THIS IS NOT ME! I still make plans for weekend outdoor activities on occasion. But i'm talking small, daily-basis doses. i was always outside with Bode. It was good for me--for my mental, physical and spiritual health. It was good for my child--he was so happy to be outside. He demanded it. Absolutely demanded it. He'd stand at the front door and bang on it until i would release him to the wild. I watched this. I knew this. It was an obvious and simple fact. Oh, the hours we spent walking around that lake, stopping to watch turtles, ducks, herons, beavers. Picking up sticks. Throwing rocks in the stream. Finding black walnuts still in their green outer shell. Greeting friends and strangers alike. Looking at flowers and blossoming trees. Watching and living the changing of the seasons. We took our time. I don't remember ever feeling hurried. These are my fondest memories from those first two years with Bode.

But IT WAS EASY. We got up in the morning. Had some breakfast. Opened our front door. Loaded Bode in the jogger (often still in his jammies). Went down the driveway. Jumped the curb to the path that was right there. And we escaped to the woods. Completely enveloped in the trees. Then to the lake. To the sounds of birds and cicadas. We explored and absorbed.

Yes, i romanticize it.

But i now live in the prairie. The plains. We have no trees. We have no green. We have majestic mountains in the distance that are nothing to dismiss. I back to a golf course. It's nice not backing right up into a neighbor's kitchen. It's lush and pretty. But it's off-limits. It doesn't belong to us. Trespassers will be prosecuted. I feel really disconnected from nature. I miss the trees. I miss the green. I miss the water. (i was aware of these feelings prior to this lecture). I didn't realize how much a part of me all of those things were. I had always been in the middle of it.

I used to think it was just the long winters that was keeping me indoors. But it's become somewhat more of a habit than i realized until this summer of not-going-outside-like-we-should. I need to get past these feelings i have with our present location. I need to just get up and go. Surely we can find suitable nature close-by? I may not be able to point out orioles and herons, beavers and squirrels. But i can find grasshoppers and bunnies (galore). There are no trees to climb and no streams to wade in, but we can find wildflowers and native grasses aplenty. (And i certainly don't miss the mosquitoes and gnats!). I may not be able to walk out my front door and have a hike at the ready without getting in my car and driving for 30 minutes. But i can create a hike of sorts. I need to lower my expectations. We can create our own adventures. I used to be fun and have energy for this sort of thing. What's happened? Oh ya. I stopped going outdoors and it's SUCKING THE LIFE OUT OF ME!

Well. Now. That was dramatic.

Today i took a step towards getting myself and the boys back outside more often (as winter is on our doorstep!). We drove out to Black Forest (about 15 minutes away) and went on a little hike with a couple little friends. I got slightly lost on the way back down so it ended up being longer than planned (and i was never truly lost. i knew where we were. Just couldn't figure out quite how we'd gotten there and quite how to get back. I was very reassuring and confident to the boys and even said, "for pete's sake! TRUST ME! I know where we are!" even though for a brief moment i said both a silent AH CRAP! and a silent prayer). The boys were awesome. Super hikers. We found sticks (which quickly became, alas, guns, but boys will be boys). We sought out the best pinecones. We checked out the native wildflowers (is that a redundant statement?). We found a grasshopper. We pointed out the birds in the, yes, trees. Not the lush deciduous trees i pine for (HA!), but i'll take these conifers in a heartbeat. Back at the trailhead the boys had time to run and play on the playground. It was a really good day. A really good start.

That's the thing, too, that i know for a fact. We always have better days when we've spent a large portion of it outside in it.