Being natural

I was at a conference a couple of months ago where a scientist that I am acquainted with gave a lecture on how she integrated her children into her work, and how she impressed upon them the awesomeness of our natural world. I walked away wondering: Have I made that impression on my own children? Are they inspired by the outdoors? I was convinced after thinking about it that my children were inspired by nothing unless it had a Disney logo on it and I was distressed...

Shortly after that event, I took my children on a nature walk at a local state park. We smelled the air, climbed the trees, and then went on a suspension bridge in the treetops. They really seemed to like it, and they had such a sense of pride after coming down the seven flights of stairs to get back down to the bottom. Just a few short months later, I am pulling down my little girl from the fence that she is climbing to collect leaves from every tree in the yard. And, everyday I hoist her hefty 45 pounds to a reasonable height so that she can feel like she is climbing the tree as she laughs in total utter bliss about being sky bound.

Perhaps that joy lies within all of us as an innate characteristic. The child like play that comes with laying in the sand and making sand angels, or letting the waves lap around your ankles, or climbing to the stars one limb at a time... is something that is contained in each of our programming and is easily accessed, with even the slightest exposure.

Either way, my children are naturalists after all, as they stalk the squirrels across the yard, I laugh to myself. What did I have to be worried about?