To the Woods

A morning spent in the woods with a bunch of others .
Searching for huhu grubs, building bivies and for the younger ones, fairy bivies, running, dragging sticks and carting pine needles.
For me, it's like coming home.

When we interact with our natural environment we always seem deeply at home.
So much of this modern living seems to have us living slightly separate from our own bodies and our environment.
Smelling the Earth, feeling the Earth with our toes and lying down on top of her we have a chance to fully inhabit our own bodies and the natural environment.
We fully become part of this Earthly landscape.

I love the natural world and being in it. Mostly it just feels right.
I share this love with the girls as often as possible.
It allows me to come alive and it embeds love and joy into whatever we are doing. I don't have an expectation that they too will love the natural world but I do know they will take something worthwhile and authentic from these times.
At the least they will know what meaningful engagement, passionate interest and the drive to learn more looks like.
They will recognise it when they feel it and it will feel familiar.
Meaningful engagement, passionate interest and the drive to learn more will be part of their culture; it will be part of their "normal."

So:
Find what you love.
Do it more often.
Share your love with your children.

(Check out the new link on the sidebar;"A Work of One's Own."
Fairly essential reading I think. )