“I went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”
- John Muir
In his 1901 book Our National Parks, John Muir observed that “thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home. Wilderness is a necessity.” Nature, in his words, is a “fountain of life.”
“Do you want to go for a walk?” my son Alex often asks—a question I treasure. Since he was a toddler, we’ve gone on nature walks together, collecting pinecones and leaves as we venture through the forest. It’s during our walks that I learn most about his days, his interests, his plans, his worries, his joys, his thoughts. Without the confines of four walls, he opens himself up to me more fully. Though he’s typically “a talker” during these jaunts, we also engage in quiet moments—times when we both, as Muir advocates, go in.
What role does nature play in your life? How can you make more time to immerse yourself in it?
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