I am a city girl now, living just north of Chicago.  A short train ride away from the loop.  Everything always bustling and beeping and impatient.  Don’t hesitate for even a nano second when the light turns green or else!  Hurry, hurry, hurry.  This is not my nature or my pace.  I have been dubbed “the tortoise”  by pretty much everyone related to me.  I am not so sure they always mean it as a compliment.

Eustice Conway,  a local legend from NC written about in  “The Last American Man” by Elizabeth Gilbert, dedicates his life to teaching children how to live in harmony with nature.  Part of his speech to school children is, “You live in boxes, but I live in circles”.  I grew up only partly in boxes.  And those boxes rarely had heat or air conditioning!  Mostly, I lived in circles.  I spent most of my childhood in NC at the beach, on the farm, or at the barn tending my horse.  Those circles get inside of you.  The boxes just never feel right after that.

So in spite of being a city slicker now, I am always finding myself lured seductively towards nature.  It just seems to call to me.  Then I find myself immersed and totally surrounded.  It gives me peace.   It touches and soothes something deep inside me, like home.  As I read “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv I am validated by what he calls ‘nature-deficit disorder’.  This generation of children is growing up without an intimate relationship with nature.  They know more about the global threats to our environment than what creatures live in the forest preserve down the road.  They know the names of more TV shows than trees growing in their backyard.  I suffer from this disorder too!  Especially in the cold Chicago winters.

So when we have 65 degree sunny days in October I take full advantage.    I rebel against wearing shoes.  I only put them on once today when I ran 4 miles in the woods.  This patch of forest is my oasis.  I go and drink it in heavily.

This was my only company there this morning.  I am always wondering why I don’t see more people here?

I went from there to meet my colleague and MovNat trainer, Dan Houlihan, in a field near Zeke’s school to finish a movement workshop we are collaborating on together.  This included full body natural movements and progressions, running barefoot, and most importantly, PLAYING OUTSIDE!!  Yes, us grown ups need to play outside too.  Food for the soul.  ( See http://www.emergencewellness.com/upcoming-events.aspx  If you are reading this and you live any where nearby COME AND PLAY!!)

Then I picked Zeke up, and walking out to the car, we found ourselves lost in the tiny ecosystem under a rock.  Zeke had found this rock yesterday and was convinced that there was treasure buried there.  Even though I didn’t mention it today, (I forgot about it) he remembered and wanted to go back to explore.

He was right.  He found treasure.

We were completely consumed and lost for over an hour.  While TV seems to steal time, nature seems to expand it.  The benefits so obvious in my child as he finally stacked his pile of sticks (more treasure) in the car to go home.  Quiet, calm, focused, peaceful, able to regulate himself emotionally for the rest of the day.  Even in the face of meltdowns from his sisters who sat in a box all day,  rode in a box for 45 minutes to get in another box to go home to their boxes.  Hmm?

And here’s the thing.  That hour of pure nature with Zeke wasn’t way out in the middle of nowhere.  We didn’t have to fly, drive and hike 50 miles to find it.  It was at the edge of a parking lot in a bustling suburb just north of one of this country’s major cities.

We can lose ourselves, reduce this deficit and nourish our body/mind/spirit.   We can help our children heal this broken bond with nature just by taking the time.  No matter where you live.  Because all it take is  just opening our eyes to see past the asphalt to what poet John Milton calls “A Wilderness of Sweets”.  Right there…in front of us… in our back yards…in our neighborhoods…or at the edge of a parking lot.