I’ve been reading about Beatrix Potter and how she loved nature even as a very young child. This post really resonated. Nature is all over the place; it’s not difficult to teach the young to love and respect her!
There is no more powerful recruitment tool for conservation than experiencing the beauty of the wild spaces around us, even if it's in our backyard or the local park.
Well done sir! This is our perennial Thanksgiving argument in my family. My cousin works for the DEP. I hunt deer (and trap and fish and all that). While she's pushing paper and ticketing people who extend their pier too far into the bay, I'm learning and loving every tree, brook, stone, muskrat, and lake. I can see my environmentalism in the eyes and entrails of every deer. I can see the consequences, good and bad, of every shot I take, even every step I take. I can tell you the names of 50 different kinds of grass and have cast the seeds of more wildflowers than anyone could ever care to count. She never leaves her office, lives 3000 sqft suburban home, and has the temerity to tell me how damaging my lifestyle is. And for every one of her, their are thousands like her with the same insular opinions. Ecology can't be confined to a binder on an office shelf. For the love of God, let your kids stuff their pockets with acorns and never be like her!
This reminds me of Robin Wall Kimmerer reminding us we need places for people to come pick the berries, enjoy the sweetness of the plants that we might remember how much we love them, how much we want to nourish them as they nourish us.
Uplifting and contemplative.
Thank you!
This is incredible! I love your writing style and all of the comparisons you made.
Thank you!!!
Would you mind if I featured this article in my Sunday post?
Please do!
I’ll send you the link when it’s published! :)
I’ve been reading about Beatrix Potter and how she loved nature even as a very young child. This post really resonated. Nature is all over the place; it’s not difficult to teach the young to love and respect her!
There is no more powerful recruitment tool for conservation than experiencing the beauty of the wild spaces around us, even if it's in our backyard or the local park.
Well said, Ryan. Appreciate your heart and mind on these principles.
Thank you Jared.
Well done sir! This is our perennial Thanksgiving argument in my family. My cousin works for the DEP. I hunt deer (and trap and fish and all that). While she's pushing paper and ticketing people who extend their pier too far into the bay, I'm learning and loving every tree, brook, stone, muskrat, and lake. I can see my environmentalism in the eyes and entrails of every deer. I can see the consequences, good and bad, of every shot I take, even every step I take. I can tell you the names of 50 different kinds of grass and have cast the seeds of more wildflowers than anyone could ever care to count. She never leaves her office, lives 3000 sqft suburban home, and has the temerity to tell me how damaging my lifestyle is. And for every one of her, their are thousands like her with the same insular opinions. Ecology can't be confined to a binder on an office shelf. For the love of God, let your kids stuff their pockets with acorns and never be like her!
Can visualize it and feel it. Thank you: “ a grey morning at the shoreline with cold hands,”
Beautifully expressed 🙏🏻🌻
Thank you!
This reminds me of Robin Wall Kimmerer reminding us we need places for people to come pick the berries, enjoy the sweetness of the plants that we might remember how much we love them, how much we want to nourish them as they nourish us.
Very good. Just remember that the person to make the berry patch may have to be YOU!
On it ;)
Wonderful essay. ACA has some thoughtful folks. It’s just what’s needed
Thanks Frankie. It's a good group of people.
A great essay, as always! You have a true gift for showing how everything starts at the most simple level - in the home and in our everyday lives.