A Little Patch of Wild

Today Daniel and I went on a wonderul walk. The drama of autumn has subsided. The trees are bare. Outdoors didn't look very inviting from the window, despite the thermometer reading. Outside we went nonetheless. First for a walk up to the dead end of our street. In our neighborhood it's not a cul de sac. It is a good old fashioned New England dead end. Daniel practiced pedaling his big wheel. He still has not mastered keeping both feet on the pedals, which resulted in a lengthy stop-and-start tour for the 400 ft and back from our front door. Undaunted, however, he remained in good spirits.

We decided to go on foot around our neighborhood, the air too pleasant to retreat back into the house. We walked a few blocks to a pond where a swan family lives and were happy to see the family had a group of geese visiting. When we returned to the house. Again we were both resistant to going inside. The slightly chilly air felt good on our checks. The perfect blend of chilly air and warm sun was invigorating. We walked around the back of our building and down the hill to the "big" pond and Daniel calls it. Following the short trail to the water, we came up with stories to explain the placement of several large boulders at the bottom of the hill and picked up treasures for the seasonal nature boxes we are making.

At the shore of the pond, we set about finding rocks to throw in. Soon Daniel made a sport of trying to make the biggest ripples and went searching for bigger and bigger rocks. This went on for about an hour, mostly in complete silence and Daniel intent on his work. Every now and then he would implore me to help him find more rocks and I would direct him to a new area to excavate. With the sun getting low in the sky, I looked at my watch to see it was 3:30pm. With the sunset over the pond to happen at about 4:15pm, I suggested we get back up to the house to get some hot cocoa and position ourselves at the kitchen table to watch tonight's colorful display.

I read a great blog the other day, Thoreau's "Tonic of Wildness". Our adventure today made me reflect on a quote of Thoreau, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation... concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind... There is no play in them." As a culture we "play hard" and will spend great sums of money for amusement to distract ourselves from the "quite desperation" that lurks. I felt it today while at the lake. Feeling a sort of residual sadness creep in, no basis in the present whatsoever. An echo of difficult times, of perhaps adolescent loneliness or the isolation I lived with in my 20's. In the amusements we spend our lives pursuing, there is indeed little if no play. How wonderful to partake in the spontaneous play with Daniel. To be in the presence of his spirit and the healing tonic of the wild. It doesn't take a lot of wild to bring you back to your senses. I think it is so key for kids as well. I recall growing up and roaming the neighborhood, waking farmers fallow fields or into the woods for hours at a time independently and having wonderful adventures. I returned home renewed in spirit and with a little more wisdom, confidence, and maturity. I certainly wouldn't send my son out into the woods on his own at this age, but taking trips together and hanging back to let him create his own context and set the rules of engagement is good for both of us. While I may have romantic notions of getting away form it all and moving to the backwoods somewhere, a nice small patch of wild in back of our house worked fine for us today.