When is the last time you stood and watched the sun rise or set?
Felt the leaves crunch beneath your feet as you walk through the woods?
Spent a half of an hour watching a butterfly float from flower to flower?
Climbed a tree?
Listened to the birds, identifying their songs?
When is the last time you felt the grass on your back as you found pictures in the clouds?
We have become a society that is tuned in, turned on...
on our smart phones, ipads, computers more hours than not.
Our senses are bombarded with music, television, emails, text messages...
all sorts of media stimulation,
and yes, overload.
Richard Louv in his 2005 book entitled "The Last Child in The Woods"
described a condition that many of us suffer from.
"Nature Deficit Disorder"
With our lives that have become so immersed in technology,
we suffer from attention deficit disorders and mood disorders...
most likely rooted in the fact that we never slow down,
we never relax,
we never use our imaginations,
anymore.
Unless....
we are seated in front of a screen
with artificial stimulation filling our senses.
Our children spend their precious free time engaged in organized activities,
television, and computers...
not in imaginative, creative outdoor play.
Somehow, to me, in our quest to make life easier,
through electronic conveniences,
we have done just the opposite.
Are we happy?
The television ads tell us we are depressed.
Our lives are complicated, stressful, less satisfying.
We are disengaged from our earth, except in concept!
Truly......
how much time do we really spend actually touching our earth,
seeing it, smelling it, hearing it
without the bombardment of technology.
Richard Louv's premise is that our children will suffer for this.
I would have to agree.
I am sure that you, too, agree with me...
and I am sure that I am "preaching to the choir".
We need to get back to basics,
back to nature,
and back to ourselves...
human beings who are children of this earth.
We need a daily dose of....
Nature.
I challenge you.
Unplug...
even if for only a day.
Or better yet, for a part of every day.
Go outside.
Go for a walk.
Turn off your brain.
Turn on your senses.
Remember....
what is important...
in life...
to life....
is life.
You can find life....outside.
So smile...
and have a great weekend!
Comments
I, for one, make sure I have plenty of 'nature time'!
Have a great weekend!
I love your pictures and I imagine that there's not much a walk in those woods wouldn't cure. :)
Thanks for this reminder, I am going to try and add more of this to my daily schedule, now that Driving Ms. Daisy is going into storage.
I arise early and walk around & just 'breath'... I take in all the sights, smell and sounds that surrond me....,& I don't have to share those moments with anyone! just nature & myself greeting the sunrise...Then I am ready to face the day and all the activities it brings.
hugz
Kathy