Is it just me or has anyone else noticed I haven't been home lately?
We caught the last of the spring bloom in the desert a few weeks ago after a long drive to nowhere. It wasn't hard to figure out why we had the whole place to ourselves.
I've been reading a book by Richard Louv called Last Child In the Woods. Fearing I might be partially (okay, fully) responsible for my family's neglect and possible divorce from nature, I forced everyone into the car for a tour of the desert to make myself (and them) feel better, since "the woods" were terribly far away.
I made all four of my daughters get out of the car and climb over tons of rocks and boulders and figure out how to cross the creek several times without getting their little toes wet so they could really bond with nature. Wait...was I suppose to let them get their toes wet?
They kept looking back to see where I was, wondering if I was going to ditch them behind some big rock,
or get crushed by one,
or get eaten by hungry desert caterpillars.
I kept trying to tell them that it wasn't exactly like being in the forest since there were only three trees to hide behind.
Ohhh, foolish mother who thought her little girls could wear white in the desert and not get dirty.
And not a week after, I was feeling so guilty about the tree thingy that I forced them all back into the car ten days later for a seven hour drive north, past miles and miles of previously spewed, one hundred year old, molten lava...
2 comments:
Kathleen, it looks lovely. I get so torn, do I make Trevor stay inside and read for 30 mins. or make him go outside and play? There are such advantages to both, neither is "more" important, kwim?
Personally...I'd choose outdoors right now. They have the rest of their life to read, but there's something magical about experiencing nature when you're a kid that doesn't happen in the same way when we are all grown up. Let him built forts and roam through the woods now, and tell him to take his books with him :-)
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