As Americans, we have become the first indoor species in the world. Yet, 7 in 10 Americans live within a two-hour drive of a national forest, all of which are vitally important to our connection to the outdoors, yet they are being used less and less.
If you spend time in nature, odds are you’ll see the importance of the outdoors. You’ll feel the calming power of simply being outside, the connection to something bigger. And it’s not surprising, because we used to spend our entire lives there. But unfortunately, today many of us are disconnected from our natural habitat.
The average American spends 95 percent of their life indoors. Never mind, all of the statics on the rampant increasing usage of video games and screen times with youths these days spending large portions of their lives in virtual reality, instead of reality itself. Simply being indoors all of the time, will eventually make anyone as crazy as a horse gorged on locoweed. As a result of becoming an indoor species, our health and well-being is suffering. And the less we value our outdoor spaces, the less likely we are to protect them. It’s a slippery slope.
The long march indoors is not inevitable. We’re at a crossroads, each one of us as people, as parents, as being part of something greater. Our decisions now will dictate our future. Being outside teaches you to be adaptable to your surroundings. It helps you grow, it literally helps you become alive.
Being is all that is left, being is who we are, if we calm down the mind.
Spend less time in the world of thought and more time in the real world doing, with your body in action. Create momentum.
Or be like a tree, as a seed from the tree always makes the best of the situation it’s planted in, even if it is not ideal.
Most sports, if you make too serious business of it, you spoil it. There should be remaining at all sports some chance and skill. You’ll find it in the outdoor sports of shooting, hunting, fishing, foxhunting, polo and other country sports. It is my hope that you will find a complete edication and concentration to the task at hand in one of them, which frees the mind and the soul.
So take a kid outdoors, today. Make it a priority, before it’s too late not just for the kid, but for the human species.
