We had an all around wonderful time, feeling the sand between our toes and laughing in the salt air and summer sun. Matt and I especially enjoyed watching our children delight in all of God's creation that surrounded them. Our daughters collected interesting shells, observed bird behavior, and the patterns in the sand left by the waves.
The best time to go was around 8 in the morning. The beaches were empty and there was much wildlife and nature to enjoy, untouched and unaffected by the tourist beach-goers that would soon cover the sandy shoreline. As the tide went out, our oldest delighted in scooping up different varieties of crabs from the edge of the water! They were interesting to say the least. Her interest in them was pure, deep, and inspiring. She collected about 10 of them for further observation, laid them carefully on the sand with her variety of interesting colored shells, and proceeded to discover as much as her little hands would allow her to. She had so many questions, and not enough answers.
When it was time for us to gather our belongings to head to the road, she decided to try to find another kid to give her collection to, so that they, too, might enjoy them as much as she did. She looked all over (the beach was still mostly empty, but there were a few families arriving). She ran up to one little girl, proudly held forward her bucket of crabs and said "I have to go, would you like to see these? They won't hurt you, they are dead." The little girl took one very brief peak into the bucket, said an affirmative (and somewhat rude) "NO!" and ran away. I, as the parent, was crushed- my feelings were hurt FOR her, but she shrugged it off, and went in search of another child. She found 2 sisters playing in the waves a short distance off and ran over to them. The mother with them thought her collection was "gross" and turned away. The 2 daughters took a moment of interest in them, and then said they would accept the gift, which satisfied my daughter enough and she turned to leave. But it was obvious those 2 girls were not nearly as interested in the crabs as we were. That's alright, DD didn't seem to mind. In fact, as we were walking back to our belongings, she proudly commented, "I'm so glad I was able to give so many crabs, instead of just one, to those kids. They are going to have so much fun with them!" Little did she know, they had already tossed them aside. Oh well, c'est la vie.
It did, though, remind me of an article I had read a couple of years ago in Faith and Family magazine that addressed Nature Deficit Disorder. Kids of this generation don't encounter nature nearly as much as we did when we were kids. They might play on a swing set now and then, or go to the swimming pool...but rarely are they given the chance to encounter, and I mean really encounter, nature. They encounter nature when they can stop to feel it, ponder it, perhaps experience it in action.
I've certainly had the times when I've had to hurry my kids along, and stop them from observing something that happens to just be bad timing with what I'm doing. Reading that article, though, a couple years ago set me out on a personal mission. I decided to make an effort to not brush their seemingly small interests in nature aside (it only takes about 10 seconds to stop and ponder it with them and say, "hmm...that is interesting."). On a larger scale, we try to build more "outside" time into our days, and each week to do something a long the lines of a "nature walk." We take our baggies, magnifying glasses, and field guides and go out the door, in our neighborhood, or to a local park. Its always a great bonding time for us all. Something I am personally working on is getting out the door even when the weather is less than favorable, so the kids can truly experience the cold, the rain, the sun, the muggy clouds...nature and how it changes with with weather.
All in all, the primary goal is to truly encounter God's creation. Touch it, smell it, get dirty in it, and even create with it (we will make a nature sculpture with plaster of paris and the colorful shells we found).
We had a wonderful encounter with nature this weekend, regardless of the fate of our crab collection. As it turns out, it led to a mini Theology lesson. We find it no small coincidence that after a hands-on weekend with nature, our children were (of their own accord) pondering the amazing existence of God. We were swarmed with innocent questions such as, "If God created the world, then who created God?" and "How can it be that He has no beginning and no end?"
What fun! That crab collection *was* cool, even if those kids couldn't realize it!
ReplyDelete