Environmental awareness Archives

July 31, 2013December 16, 2017

5 Reasons to Encourage Your Kid to Climb a Tree

There are lots of reasons to encourage kids to climb trees, but many of them can begin to seem unimportant when faced with the possibility of our beloved child falling out of one. Besides the fact that kids just love it, here are my top five reasons, backed by science, to support tree climbing despite its inherent risks.

1) Being Outside Reduces Stress

Many studies over the past 20 years have shown that spending time in nature reduces cortisol levels, lowers blood pressure, increases resilience, and supports cognitive function. And climbing trees is a great way to help kids engage in an outside activity that is fun and challenging. read more

June 27, 2012

Spending Time in Nature is Essential to Wellbeing

There is something magical about the land we were on last weekend. The babbling brooks, the rock lined trails, the sound of the wind through the trees. Birdsong, fire pits, drums, and dirt all found their way back into my heart and into the rhythm of our lives. I had almost forgotten how much it nurtures me to spend time in nature.

Sure, we were cold, wet and uncomfortable some of the time. There were times when my husband and I wished for our climate controlled home and we definitely missed our hot tub during the cold cold nights. But it felt good to lean on the trees for support or to sit on a rock to rest. It was nice to look up into the sky and remember that rain helps the plants to grow and that the sun is their food. And after a while I found myself bounding through the forest, enlivened and excited so much that I wanted to race from place to place through the forest. read more

September 21, 2011March 7, 2012

I dream of sustainability

Ever since I saw the blog The Zero Waste Home last week (thanks ShalomMama!), I can’t stop thinking about the idea of living a life with less, if not “zero” waste. I’ve been hyper aware of every single thing I put into the trash. And I’ve been asking myself, what would I do with that, if I didn’t throw it away? Bea Johnson, says “Refuse, refuse, refuse, and then reduce, reuse, recycle.” And I certainly like the idea of simplifying my life and reducing my carbon footprint. But I’m just not sure how far I’m willing to go to get there. read more