Category: Everything Else

What others criticize you for, cultivate.

It is you.

-Jean Cocteau

I know, I’m on a non-conformist kick at the moment. It happens.

Look at how highly individually and with such incredible detail the insect world is crafted, how distinct the patterns and bold the colors. Even if they wanted to mute their outer selves, it’s not remotely an option.

To be honest, this particular bug makes me crave these pants. Wouldn’t the world be more fun if we indulged our desire to wear yellow-and-black checkered jeans?

Don’t we owe it to ourselves to be every bit as interesting, individual, and complicated as we actually are? Wouldn’t it be great if we wore those differences so proudly we didn’t even have to wrap them in the metaphor of our clothes?

Although, it didn’t turn out so great for this guy. Just after this photo was taken, he was caught by the bearded robber fly in yesterday’s picture. Those robber flies are serious business!

 

This is the true joy in life-

the being used for a purpose 

recognized by yourself as a mighty one;

the being a force in nature,

instead of a feverish, selfish little clod
of ailments and grievances

complaining that the world will not devote itself 

to making you happy.

-George Bernard Shaw

Look at the bearded robber fly-  he’s got a fly in his mouth!  

…at the same time that we exclude mankind
from gathering berries in our field,

we exclude them from gathering
health and happiness and inspiration,

and a hundred other far finer and nobler fruits than berries,
which are found there….

-Henry David Thoreau

In case you didn’t know, we are in the midst of Take a Child Outside Week.

Children between the ages of 2 and 18 spend an average of 40 hours a week exposed to some sort of “screen media”- TV, video games, computer- outside of school hours.

That’s a full-time job!

A preschooler’s risk for obesity increases by 6%
for every hour of TV watched per day.

If there’s a TV in the child’s bedroom,
the odds jump an additional 31% for every hour watched.

-Susan Linn, “The Case for Make-Believe”

A preschooler’s risk for obesity. It sounds like an oxymoron.

Take a child outside. Don’t worry about planning things to do. Cassie’s favorite game is “scratch away at dirt with rocks and sing to yourself.” This will occupy her for the better part of an hour.

Cultivate their sense of beauty, their sense of wonder.

Help them to be a “contemplative observer”.

Take them to “the wonderful, deep, dark woodland- a cathedral of stillness and peace”.

Quiet, unstructured time outside naturally brings about creativity, empathy, movement, and curiosity.

And it’s time not spent in front of a screen!

It’s good for you, too. When will they start a week to “Take an Adult Outside”?