{into nature}

{into nature} is a weekly Monday post inspiring the exploration of nature. It is a grassroots effort to combat the nature deficit disorder in our current generations. Please join me in this movement back into nature by sharing your own nature inspiration, whether shared through photographs, words, poetry…. leave a link here in the day's comments for all to enjoy.

“For children, nature comes in many forms. A newborn calf; a pet that lives and dies; a worn path through the woods; a fort nested in stinging nettles; a damp, mysterious edge of a vacant lot- whatever shape nature takes, it offers each child an older, larger world… nature does not steal time; it amplifies it.” -Richard Louv

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most days we flow right into the outdoors.  without having a set appointment, a written agenda, even an expectation, it is a seamless movement from breakfast to getting dressed to getting to our outdoor destination.  but every now and again it's a choppy process, taking two steps backwards to get a step towards the door.  of course, i have two tots and a dog.

i put a shoe on, a shoe comes off.  i fill the water bottles, a thirsty mouth drinks them before i can get the next set of shoes on.  step out the door, oh it's a bit chillier than i thought, i'd better grab the gloves.  get to the car, wait, where's that other glove?  glance at the clock, an hour to lunch, when i started this whole process wasn't it 2 hours to lunch, back into the house to grab snacks to hold us over to a later lunch.  backing out of the driveway, oh no, the dog leash.  finally, as the sun glares into my shadeless eyes (where are my sunglasses?!), i start to think that maybe it would have been easier to just stay home.

you get the picture.  just like any other outing trying to get a family out the door.  the difference is the trip home, with the content peace surrounding us, almost always confirms that that whole roundabout process that got us into nature was totally worth every step backwards.