Many kids today are chaperoned from school to the soccer field to music lessons and home again; they never have a chance to joyfully muck around in the natural world.

With cupped hands and a wide grin, Drew dashed up; “Grandpa and Grandma look at these tadpoles!”“Oh wow!” we cried in unison. He squatted to return the tadpoles to the water and paused to catch some more. It’s always a treat to have our six-year-old grandson for the weekend.We swam in the clear shallow water then lazed on the warm rocks to watch Drew make mud pies. While hiking the trails every turn in the creek became a new adventure—a startled deer retreating in the thicket or the slow rowing action of a blue heron’s wings as it flew down stream. Drew gaped wide-eyed, “cool!” Each day we dug in the dirt, gazed at the sunset or lay on the creek’s rocks to observe the clouds roll by. The beauty, wonder and delight of the backyard’s bubbling creek became a classroom, playground and cathedral.Watching Drew hop from rock to rock we thought about his peers. Many kids today are chaperoned from school to the soccer field to music lessons and home again; they never have a chance to joyfully muck around in streams, woodlands or fields. Instead they’re offered the physically safe world of video games and television. Like most children, my husband and I can remember feeling freer and happier in a natural area then indoors. More intelligent too. We need to be outside to see nature as more than a warehouse, economic or scientific resource and playground. Nature is our home and its inhabitants are our family. When nature becomes our mother, teacher, healer and church we instinctively want to protect the planet, our Creator’s precious gift, out of love. If Drew’s generation is loosing contact with the natural world they will have lost something precious. They will have lost a part of what it means to be human. We evolved in nature, depending on its rhythms, inextricably connected to other living things. We need to be outside to develop a sense of human community as part of the wider natural world. My husband and I also worry about the furture environment of Drew and his peers. It has become a battle to keep our beautiful rivers and creeks clean and pure. Today, development, storm water runoff, sewer overflows, toxic chemicals, timber clear cuts, landfills and factories threaten our river watersheds. The river is like a heirloom. It can be protected for Drew’s descendants or allowed to become sewers. Water is the stuff of life, without it we fear Drew and his descendants will be doomed. We pray that Drew will find he loves the real world more than flashy techno-gadgetry, relies on Nature and its Creator to nurture his soul and becomes a future protector of Mother Earth.