The School of Nature

Nature offers what is needed to fully experience all of our senses – birds singing, water flowing, wind blowing through the forest canopy, the smells of flowers and the taste of a blackberry found along a path. Best of all, is the wondrous feeling of peace that falls over us when in the company of Nature.

Time with Nature, for so many in our fast-paced culture, has become a rarity. We have things to do and people to see and places to go and spending time with Nature…just isn’t an option. In fact, many would see it as a “waste of time” – time that could be better spent “doing” something that will lead to one more check mark on the to-do list that every overactive mind is busy tending to. And…this is the mindset we’re handing off to our children.

I’ve been reading a book by Richard Louv titled, “Last Child in the Woods – Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder”, which has helped to highlight the changes to children’s lives over the course of the last couple of generations…with regard to their relationship with Nature. Richard Louv writes, “Nature-deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. The disorder can be detected in individuals, families, and communities.”

When I was a child, my imagination wasn’t restricted to written instructions or adult supervised, highly structured activities on manicured fields. For the most part, we made it up as we went. Nature provides all that is needed to entertain a child for hours – the child just needs to be introduced and what will follow is a life-long relationship that nurtures and fulfills and teaches some of the most important lessons of life.

The other day, my wife Joan and I were outside in the yard with our grandchildren, Lorelei and Aydan (ages four and one respectively). We were wandering about the yard, finding fairy houses (mushrooms) in the lawn and picking tree stars (maple leafs) while standing on the "big rock" when…the stream caught Lorelei's attention.

Lorelei asked, "Grammy, can we walk in the stream?"  Of course, Joan’s answer was “Yes!” – both of us always wanting to nurture our grandchildren’s relationship with Nature, especially the Nature that lives just outside our own front door.

While Joan went inside to get water shoes, Lorelei and I...and Aydan in my arms, walked through the yard down to our favorite spot on the stream. It’s a place where moss-covered rock ledges wear a thin coat of ever-moving water - water that slows to a crawl as it gently dives into a knee-deep pool.

And there in the deep area, I saw a little fish swimming and pointed it out to Lorelei.  And then, right in front of us, a frog jumped into the water - SPLASH! 

Joan was heading down to the stream, water shoes in hand, and Lorelei was calling to her - "Grammy, we saw a fish and a frog!!!" 

Sneakers and socks were replaced with water shoes and then Grammy and Lorelei walked hand in hand down the rounded rock steps and into the unnamed stream below. Back and forth across the stream they walked, and then upstream, and then back down to the deeper water in the pool below.

I took off Aydan’s shorts handed him to Joan so he too, could experience the wonder of the stream…while I focused the camera and took a few pictures. Aydan was immediately at ease with the water that surrounded him. He splashed the water and grabbed some moss to feel its texture. Joan took the moss from his hands before it got to his mouth, which is the final destination for anything placed in the hands of a one year old.

 

Their senses came alive as they walked through and sat in the crystal clear water - the way it feels as it kisses their legs and feet, the sight and sound of it as it flows all around them. They became one with the water – one with one of Nature’s main characters...and fell under a trance that they didn’t want to awaken from.

To me, flowing water is the purest reminder of life - a professor who teaches us how to achieve flow, free from attachments. Streams and rivers show by example that, without exception, there's always a way around every obstacle – one of infinite lessons taught by the tuition-free school called Nature.