When my daughter was in elementary school, we stopped at the visitor center for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, where we checked out a backpack to use as we explored the river. One of the items in the backpack was a trash bag. Unfortunately, it took us little time to fill it with tangled fishing line and other waste.
Our world is awe-inspiring and filled with beauty, but it needs advocates to clean up trash, to fight for the protection of wild places, and to take action in the face of global warming. If we go from car to office to car to store to car to home, hardly spending any time outdoors, we forget about how valuable nature is, and how important it is to protect it.
I started writing this post during a glorious fall, when I took frequent long walks. I set it aside for posts that seemed to be more important at the time, and then, as the days grew shorter and colder and the sidewalks became icy, it felt wrong to blog about something I’d stopped doing. I hate winter. I think Dante must be right — hell is frozen at its core. It’s hard to make myself get in the car to go anywhere, let alone go outside for a walk.
But now the days are lengthening, and we’ve been blessed with a January thaw. I really miss my outdoor time, so I think it’s time to try to venture out for walks again. Nature is good for my soul. This is one of the reasons why we need to get outside: to remind ourselves of what nature can do for us and to give back to it by doing what we can to protect it.
As a working mom, I know how hard it can be to fit in “extras” like walks outdoors. Our days our filled with things that need to be done — work, housework, maybe parenting or tending to aging parents, perhaps taking a class or pursuing a side gig. There never seems to be time to spend just enjoying nature, and when we have time, we’re so tired that we just want to collapse with a book or a screen and escape for a while.
Make the time anyway. Take time this week to walk through a park, ramble in the desert, stand at the edge of a beach… whatever you can do to connect with nature.
And if it’s miserable outside where you are and you have no desire to leave your house, I sympathize. It’s hard to enjoy nature when it’s dark and your cheeks are numb. But on that first nice day, whether it’s tomorrow or a month from now, get outside and breathe in the beauty of nature.