and something more powerful take its place. “When they show up [at the river] they’re scared to death,” he says. “But after about two hours of paddling, they’re much more comfort- able. They’re laughing, they’re joking, they’re watching mink and bald eagles. Kids feel they’ve conquered something important, not just out in the wilderness but also inside them- selves.” That confidence can last long after
leaving the trail. Bay Area psycho- therapist Susanna Moore has been hiking with her two teenage daugh- ters since they were babies. “They’re very physically confident, and I think a lot of that has to do with having grown up hiking,” Moore says. “There are certain things you learn if you’re outside a lot: You know how to keep
warm, how to start a fire, how to read a trail map.” There’s also a subtler kind of confidence that comes from escaping the scourge of competitive parenting. “You get to the beach, you’ve walked two miles, and you just flop on the ground. You know you’re going to be there a few hours and there’s nothing in particular that anybody needs to do,” Moore says. “I just think that’s a really great thing to build in a child.” Marti Erickson, an expert on child-parent attachment theory and professor emerita of psychology at the University of Minnesota, believes that getting out in nature may be one of the best ways for families to bond in the digital age. She tells me, “In today’s technologically driven world, parents face a whole new set of barri-
ers to being emotionally available and responsive to their children.” Erickson recognizes how hard it is for children and their parents to unplug—but I still cringe, thinking of my seven- year-old, who regularly puts her hand over my laptop screen before asking me a question. Parent-child bonding isn’t the only connection strengthened in nature. A recent study by psychologists from the University of Rochester and the University of Essex found that people exhibit greater empathy and generos- ity after being primed with images of nature as opposed to images of the built world. Andrew Przybylski, coauthor of the study, theorizes that being in nature helps people connect to their authentic selves, which he believes are inherently communal. Separated from the pressures of the manmade world, worries like wealth and reputation diminish. For some, that connection in nature
can feel spiritual. As Marti Erickson puts it, “Those moments of ‘Oh, wow!’ are precious and can lead to a powerful discovery of how we’re con- nected to all living things.” For children, that discovery can prove life-altering. Louise Chawla’s research has shown that people who took action to protect the environ- ment as adults were more likely to have played outside regularly as children. “Childhood nature-play pre- dicted caring actions for the environ- ment and environmental protection in adulthood,” she says—adding that such experiences can have a transfor- mative effect as late as adolescence. Our oldest is ten, I think as I hang up the phone. We still have time.
TPL.ORG · 37
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68