When my children were young, we spent most of our time outdoors. Sometimes, being outside with them was the only way I could get through a day without having a breakdown. Kids love being outdoors, in the fresh air and surrounded by nature. They crave it.
Just the mention of the park and both my children would squeal in delight and scramble about to find their wellies and coats. It’s funny because, before I became a mum I think that sense of adventure had all but left me. When we become adults, part of our brains become closed to the magic of nature and, subsequently, to the power of good it can do us. It’s almost as though, at some point during the process of growing up, we lose sight of the smaller things and become blindsighted to the beauty that’s all around us.
Having children reignites that excitable, adventurous side within you, the part that’s been locked away under a tonne of responsibility and worry. If you have young children, you might already know that almost every walk with them will result in either a pit stop every two minutes to observe some interesting rocks on the ground, or at the very least a sizeable collection of natural treasures wedged into pockets. Feathers, flowers, rocks and bark, all waiting to be found when you next wash your child’s pair of trousers.
Can you remember the feeling of running your hand along the wispy grasses that stretch out along the pathway? The joy of finding a four leaf clover, or the secret thrill of fooling your friends into thinking you’d found one by tearing one of the leaves in two?
Being a child brings with it a sense of wonder, because they are seeing everything for the first time. Everything is exciting. The first time you see a pigeon, it’s an incredible, mysterious creature that must be thoroughly investigated and followed immediately. The 100th time you see one, you barely even notice it.
It does beg the question though, that out of all the things our children are introduced to in the world on an almost daily basis, why is it always nature they are drawn to most? Why does that trip to the local park fill them with the most joy possible, even though they may have been a million times before?
We live in a world surrounded by nature. Even the most concrete urban jungle contains some form of local wildlife and plants. It’s there, even if you have to look a little harder to see it in some places. When we walk to the train station in the morning, double checking our pockets for our house keys and rushing to get the 7.45 before it departs, we hardly notice anything else around us, let alone that new family of squirrels racing round the lamp post. Or those two pigeons snuggled up together on top of the bridge, cooing at passer bys. Yet a child in a pushchair does. They glare up at it all, taking it all in, pointing and laughing and noticing. Always noticing.
Our lives are full, busy and quite often a rush. We scramble to get everything done into a set amount of hours. It’s like a game, except the rules aren’t always fair and the rewards often come with a serious amount of strain on our mental health. Sometimes, as we crawl into our beds, we realise that our entire day was filled with chores, responsibilities and meaningless feeling tasks and as a result, feel totally unsatisfied with our lives without fully understanding why.
What if, we stopped looking down at our phones and started looking up, at the trees? What if, instead of catching up on emails while on the train, we stared out the window and admired the plants sitting pretty alongside the tracks? What if we left for work or for the school run just 10 minutes earlier, so we could take our time and notice our surroundings? Would we find that inner child within us and revert back to a state of inquisitive wonder and admiration for our natural world? I think, and this is just my opinion, that we would all be a little happier. A little more fulfilled and a little more grounded.
Children may be small, but I think there is a lot we can learn from them. Now excuse me while I go and finish my cup of tea whilst staring at the sparrows digging up worms in my back garden…
