Who:
Paul Rauber
Senior editor, Sierra magazine
Where:
Berkeley, CA
It started as a way to radically change the subject when our 3-year-old daughter Fae got fussy. Now it's something she asks for, especially when she's feeling sad.
"Daddy, let's go look at the world."
It's as simple as taking her in my arms out onto the back porch, and checking in with the natural world. We look at where the sun and moon are, whether you can see any stars, if there are any birds or other creatures. We see which plants are flowering or fruiting, what's drooping, what's dying. Sometimes a ladybug or other insect will land on her and we'll look at that. (For a while she even had a pet maggot from the compost pile.)
When we go back inside, we're both refreshed, and smiling once again.
