One more video. This series from The North Face is inspiring.

ZION 8K from More Than Just Parks on Vimeo.

I know a lot of people who have been here, but I'm not one of them. I need to make it happen. Spectacular.

This is part of a great series called More Than Just Parks. I'd like to find the equivalent for the Canadian national parks.

Wilderness from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

This has been going around and it is inspiring.

Outdoor Ed.

There is an article in the most recent issue of Outside magazine about a school in North Carolina for kids with ADHD. The curriculum covers the standard academics but takes place completely outside and integrates traditional school learning with outdoor skills, adventures, and sports. It is an experimental program but the early results are more than encouraging. Kids who struggle with - and downright hate - traditional school are thriving in the outdoors. As the article puts it,

“The fact is, all human children learn by exploration, and we are tying their shoelaces together - not just with medication, but through over-structured, over-managed classrooms and sports teams, less freedom to roam, and ever more dazzling indoor seductions. Modern life has made all of us distractible and overwhelmed.”

When kids are given the freedom and space to wander they end up focused, concentrated, and - most important - happy and successful.

I don’t think Harry has ADHD (I think it is over-diagnosed these days and I don’t really care if he has it or not). But he definitely has some of the symptoms, though I think a lot of us do. He can get very irritable, easily frustrated, restless, and anxious when he spends long periods of time indoors. And our early attempts at formal school study have been miserable for everyone. He’s still very young and we’re not worried. But all his issues - whether it’s normal 4-year old behavior or unique to him - disappear when he’s outside. Whether it’s yard work, hiking, helping Grandpa build something, treasure hunting (geocaching), going to the beach, or other adventure and exploration, he locks in with a focus that his grandparents have said is very unusual for someone his age. He comes alive and fills with joy. If he gets hurt he doesn’t cry, if he gets tired he doesn’t complain, if he gets hungry he doesn’t whine, if something bothers him he doesn’t get mad, if he can’t do something the way he wants to he doesn’t get frustrated, and if the activity goes on for hours he doesn’t get bored.

I took him down to the lake today. I didn’t bring my watch or phone, but we left in the early afternoon and came home when the sun was almost down. He spent the whole time exploring the driftwood, building a driftwood building, finding driftwood swords, climbing rocks and logs, finding and hiding treasure, and enjoying being an adventurous boy. At one point he slipped on a log and hit his face pretty hard. It looked like it hurt. He almost cried but then remembered he was trying to walk across a 40-foot log without touching the ground and so dusted himself off and carried on. We had a wonderful time and I had to bribe him to leave.

When we had been home for a little while he became irritable and bored. He got a tiny cut on his toe from stubbing it on a chair and he went bananas - milking the cry for all it was worth and using the cut as leverage to try to get extra snacks. I think it was normal end-of-the-day toddler behavior but the contrast was amazing.

I don’t know that he’ll ever need to be in a special school, but I think some after-hours tutoring from Mother Nature will be a must.

A Life Well Lived

I thought I would do some work on the couch with the ottoman as my desk, but the dog jumped up and stretched out across my papers and licked my wrists as I wrote. He’s lonely and misses his little friends and doesn’t stop staring at me as if to say ‘bring them back, I’m sick of you’. Ashley and the kids are away for a few days. I think most parents have times when they’re with their kids but wish they weren’t - just for a little while, just to have a break, some space, some air. I get that opportunity every once in a while when Ashley takes the kids to Alberta to visit family and I have to stay here to go to school or write exams. The thought of a break always sounds good on paper - sleeping through the night, not having to sleep next to a spooked and snoring toddler or give up my spot in bed for him and sleep downstairs, doing whatever I want once my work is done for the day. But I find that ‘whatever I want’ is actually to spend time with my family and I miss them more than I enjoy the break. Yes, it is nice to take the dog for long outings, watch movies Ashley doesn’t want to see, and read and write and work without distraction. But the dog doesn’t talk or seem to like my jokes or build forts or giggle or dance or inconspicuously take off his diaper or make up obnoxious songs or tie things up and create spaceships. He’s a good friend and he’ll do for now, but I want my people to come home.

Last night I was a little lonely and, I guess, wanted to make it worse and so went through some photos and read some things I’d written about our family. It did make me miss them more, but it also made me glad I had the pictures and the words. And so I thought it would be nice to get more active in collecting those memories.

The five of us (the dog too) share a common interest that has become an important part of our family life. We all seem to come alive when we’re outside. It seems to heal bad moods - for all of us, but especially the younger ones (the dog too) - clear our minds, reset our clocks, and refresh our souls. Adventure and outings have been part of our life since Harry was very young, and I thought that making them the theme of this journal would provide an extra incentive to continue to make it a priority.

I don’t think any of us is on the level of an Everest veteran in terms of outdoor enthusiasm, but this very inspiring video does a great job of explaining the lure the outdoors has had on our family. We feel that making the outdoors part of our family life has been an effort well worth making and we plan on continuing to do so.

 
A Life Well Lived | Jim Whittaker & 50 Years of Everest from eric becker on Vimeo.


PS. I'll also write about other things. I mostly just want a record of our family life. Outside is an important theme, but there are other things too.

Vista - Video by Leif Smith on Vimeo

Vista from Leif Smith on Vimeo.

This is spectacular. Watch it big and with sound.

Snowshoeing at Sun Peaks

The latest adventure: Snowshoeing in Sun Peaks, about 45 minutes outside Kamloops, BC. It was fairly impromptu so we weren't dressed properly and they rented us some giant 1980s clunkers with barebones straps that were starched stiff with years of absorbed snow and that dug into the tops and back of our feet. But it was a great time. We went as far as we could go and ended up at a frozen lake at the top of the mountain. Three of us were alone in the forest, clumping up the mountain, but when we stopped moving and the snow crunching stopped there was complete silence. There is a quote from the book Hatchet that has stuck with me since I read it in grade 6. I couldn't have quoted it but I think of it often when I'm outside, especially where it is quiet. I found the quote:

"I'm hungry." He said it aloud. In normal tones at first, then louder and louder until he was yelling it. "I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry." 

When he stopped there was sudden silence, not just from him but the clicks and burps and bird sounds of the forest as well. The noise of his voice had startled everything and it was quiet. He looked around, listened with his mouth open, and realized that in all his life he had never heard silence before. Complete silence. There had always been some sound, some kind of sound. 

It lasted only a few seconds, but it was so intense that it seemed to become part of him. Nothing. There was no sound.

I don't think I had heard complete silence before. There's usually something - wind, leaves, birds, vehicles in the distance. But in the forest on that mountain there was complete silence. We paused a few times to bask in it and it felt like a spiritual experience. Freshness in the soul to go along with the fresh smell of trees and snow and water.