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20 June ~2009
In my nature programs I have been talking about the big picture a little more - the miracle of plants taking sunlight and water and soil nutrients and providing food for all of life on earth. They also give off oxygen to boot, so that we can breathe.Its a basic fact that kids can miss nowadays, in a world of cellphones, computers and unending television.
I put this talk in midway through the program, after they have walked with me awhile and we have been the co-discoverers of beetles, ants, Western and Eastern Kingbirds, who manuver like acrobats over the irrigation ditch to catch insects.
One of the kids came running back and said there is a snake up here. I went up with him and found it, and pulled it up out of the grass. I explained this is a good-natured snake. I can tell because it's not biting me. The kids came up and touched it, and were truly fascinated.
That is really the key to these programs right there, for the kids to experience some moments of wonder, and in so doing plant the seed of a personal relationship with nature.
I know something about that, having spent a lifetime walking on trails and paying attention. When I am camped on the edge of an alpine ridge in high Colorado I wonder if heaven could be this gorgeous? Thank goodness we don't know what the next world will be. A choir singing beneath a roof doesnt seem right. Give me silence and snow-covered peaks across the valley, when I turn and my beloved dogs run down to me.
The best times of being a Dad were walking the Greenbelt paths with my daughters and our dogs. It is the story that rings true again and again - The simple things of joy are always the best in life.
Those walks with my daughters are what caused me to be a regular leader of school group programs for Colorado State Parks and Jefferson County these last 17 years.
My nature programs are a positive thing, that ground me on what is important in life - the blue sky of this morning, the redwings and meadowlarks in song, the trail before us, the smiles and questions of these bright children, and finally the honest thanks of their teacher at the end. What could be better than to teach them something about wild nature, which been so important to me for so long?
Wendell Berry said that "Teaching Children About The Natural World Should Be Treated As One Of The Most Important Events Of Their Lives."
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