Children are naturally attuned to the highest frequencies, especially when they are in nature. Set them loose in a field or a beach and you know what I mean. My grandkids cannot get enough of the natural world. They have camped under the Red Oaks at Yosemite National Park in California; they have played on the beaches along the Big Sur of the Pacific Coast; they have hiked and fished in bear country, tiptoeing their way around a sleeping cub; they have camped in yurts at Algonquin Park, portaged across lakes, slept on remote islands to the song of the wind and cries of the loons.
My son, their father, grew up loving the wilds. Ever since he was 18 months old,we spent every summer up in Manitoulin Island. Back in the seventies and eighties,long before the rush of tourists and motor boats that have since invaded Lake Manitou, the land was still untamed. Our cottage was isolated and pristine-- a log cabin with a simple stove, washroom, camping beds and a large kitchen table--sitting right on the lake. We woke up to a morning sun rising from the waters. Sunsets were glorious fingerpaints across the sky. We had our own wooden pier where the boys had breakfast every morning and fed the gulls.
There were five cottages to the left of us, but to the right was a stretch of uninhabited land.We had no TV, no phone, no computers. Just the four of us in our cottage by the lake. It is no wonder that my son has caught the Nature Bug. Since Grade 11, he has worked six summers as a junior ranger in Algonquin Park. He married a girl equally passionate about the land. And now they are passing this love to my grandkids who, no older than 3 and 7, prefer the fields to the TV set!
No comments:
Post a Comment