Outside 365 | August 2016

In terms of outdoor activities, I think we hit it out of the ball park in the month of August. Even with sick days in the mix, we managed to get our kids outside every day. And as far as our vacation goes, we spent almost every minute of every day outside... the only way we could have spent more time outside would have been if we had gone camping instead of staying in a cottage on a lake.

At the very end of July, Jack taught himself how to ride his bike, and we have been encouraging him to practice this skill as much as we can. We are looking forward to some bigger family bike rides in the future.

In August, we rode bikes, paddled, hiked together, visited Niagara Falls, and even introduced Jack to the joy of cliff jumping (small cliffs for him, obviously).

And as always there were many trips to the park and even time swimming with friends at the lake – Jack has fully embraced the skill of snorkeling. It is one of his all-time favorite things to do.

While on vacation, I read the book Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv and I am even more convinced (if that is possible) to make sure our children spend time in nature on a daily basis.

My childhood was not one full of activities or weekends spent playing organized sports. I wandered in the woods, rode my bike unsupervised, or studied the clouds for hours on end. On Sunday afternoons I would sit in the sun on my back stoop and dream about life, letting the warm sunshine soak into me.

Family camping trips, swimming in lakes, and hikes in the Rockies as a teenager – these are the things that have stayed with me my entire life. And this book points out that these types of experiences are disappearing. Replaced instead by a culture of fear – fear of strangers and fear of nature itself.

Paradoxically, younger generations of children are taught they need to "save" nature, but they have limited personal experiences in nature. The advancement of technology has pushed this nature connection to the side. Recess is being replaced by standardized tests and children are not being allowed to immerse themselves in the natural world.

The ideas presented were not really new to me. They are things my husband and I discuss regularly and are making a conscious effort to do differently with our own children. The book just reminded me of the importance of why we are doing what we are doing, and also has made me think more about the future and how spending time outdoors might look as our children enter the school system.

Below are some of the passages from the book that spoke to me:

Within the space of a few decades, the way children understand and experience nature has radically changed... a kid today can likely tell you about the Amazon Rain Forest – but not about the last time he or she explored the woods in solitude, or lay in a field listening to the wind and watching the clouds above.

In nature, a child finds freedom, fantasy, and privacy: a distant place from the adult world, a separate place.

As we grow more separate from nature, we continue to separate from one another.

...as more parents keep their children inside the house or under rigid control, youngsters will be deprived of chances to become self-confident and discerning, to interact with neighbors, or to learn hot to build community...

What if farms and ranches were to become the new school yards, offering lessons and hands-on experience in ecology, culture and agriculture?

The dominant form of education today "alienates us from life in the name of human domination, fragments instead of unifies, overemphasizes success and careers, separates feeling from intellect and the practical from the theoretical, and unleashes on the world minds ignorant of their ignorance." In other words, today's practices help create the know-it-all state of mind, and the accompanying loss of wonder.

We cannot care for God if we do not care for his creation. The extent that we separate our children from creation is the extent to which we separate them from the creator – from God.

This past Sunday when we got home from church, Jack said he wanted to stay outside to look at the beautiful view. He laid down on our front porch, in complete quiet and stillness for quite some time... I think we are doing something right.

A Look Back at Project Outside 365:
January 2016 ⎮ February 2016 ⎮ March 2016 ⎮ April 2016 ⎮ May 2016 ⎮ June 2016 ⎮ July 2016

Things I Read in August (#10-11)

I haven't been reading as much as I would like this year. I have several books downloaded on my Kindle, but reading on an eletronic device continues to lack the appeal of a tangible book.

Before we left for our vacation, I managed to run by the library and pick up two books from my "to read" list. The first was When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. The second was Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. Very different books, but both are worth reading. I will share my thoughts on Richard Louv's book tomorrow in my Outside 365 post.

I first heard of Paul Kalanithi's story on the blog A Cup of Jo. Paul was married to Jo's twin sister and the unexpected news of his brain tumor was gut wrenching. It was the beginning of 2014 and Paul had written an essay that had been published in The New York Times of what it was like to be a neurosurgeon diagnosed with a brain tumor. His essay was raw and personal. He was close to my age and the whole scenario had me weeping at my computer. For him. For his wife.

A little over a year later, Paul died. It was shocking and sad. He left behind his wife, child, parents, siblings.

A year after Paul's death his memoir, When Breath Becomes Air, was published. In the pages of this book, Paul outlines his journey to neurosurgery, his search for meaning, and his experience facing death on a very personal level – with the irony of dying by brain tumor.

Paul was certainly taken from this life too soon. He had a profound perspective that we can't understand, until we too face death. And even then his perspective is different due to his age and knowledge of impending death. I will leave you with some of the passages from the book that have stayed with me:

As I sat there, I realized that the questions intersecting life, death, and meaning, questions that all people face at some point, usually arise in the medical context.

Death comes for us all. For us, for our patients; it is our fate as living, breathing, metabolizing organisms.

Grand illnesses are supposed to be life clarifying. Instead I knew I was going to die – but I'd known that before. My state of knowledge was the same, but my ability to make lunch plans had been shot to hell.

Yet I returned to the central values of Christianity – sacrifice, redemption, forgiveness – because I found them so compelling. There is tension in the Bible between justice and mercy, between the Old Testament and the New Testament. And the New Testament says you can never be good enough: goodness is the thing, and you can never live up to it. The main message of Jesus, I believed, is that mercy trumps justice every time.

On a lighter note, here is a sampling of what I've been reading online lately:
No Food is Healthy, Not Even Kale via The Washington Post
How to Listen When You Disagree via Urban Confessional
Race, Truth and Our Two Realities via The New York Times
Why Calls for "Unity" in American Politics are Not Enough via Quartz
A Few Thoughts on Unity via Design for Mankind
Encouraging Everyone to Vote Is Like Telling Everyone... via Mike Rowe
Nine Ways Lazy Parenting Helps Grow Great Grown Ups via Anna Rosenblum Palmer
The Great School Diaspora via Discover Praxis
What Your Kids Need to Know Before Starting School via Babble

National Parks Centennial Celebration

Did you know that the National Parks are celebrating their 100th birthday this year? If you follow along on my blog you know that my family loves spending time in the outdoors and I am so grateful that 100 years ago politicians had the foresight to set aside areas of our country for our enjoyment and preservation for future generations.

I wrote more extensively about my love of National Parks back in May, and that love has not diminished. With each passing moment that I spend outside with my kids, my love for creation and the natural world grows.

This summer we have had the chance to swim, paddle, hike and bike in places both new and old. And some days, my kids just dig in the dirt, climb trees or swing as high as they can in an effort to touch the clouds. Big or small, we are immersing ourselves in the great outdoors every chance we get.

I just finished reading the book, Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv (I will write a review soon), and I am determined to make sure that my kids do not miss out on opportunities to connect with nature.

The book got my wheels turning, thinking about the future, not just for my own children, but for all children and for generations to come.

If you have a chance, you should get outside this weekend. If you are close to a National Park, GO VISIT because all of the National Parks have FREE ADMISSION now through August 28th. There are 412 National Parks in the US, I bet you live close to one!

The last National Park I visited was Niagara Falls (a National Heritage Area as of 2008), and prior to that was a visit to the Great Smoky Mountains (the most visited National Park in the United States). I have a whole bucket list I could devote to the National Parks, I hope they are around for a long time!

Cotopaxi is celebrating the centennial by encouraging people to explore a park near their home. Check out the interesting park stats on their graphic below!