Children In The Woods

I’m in heart of Southern GA right now, visiting my wonderful in-laws as we do every Spring Break. Yesterday we spent the most beautiful afternoon and evening celebrating the 90th Birthday of a wonderful man named Roy Malone. A distant cousin 0f my in-laws, Roy invited us to a traditional Southern “Fish Fry” in the woods down by the creek.  I didn’t know what to expect, except for the fact that there would be a lot of mosquitoes and not a lot of tofu! So eco-insect repellent slathered all over, we made our way down green, leafy lanes ready to explore Roy’s enormous conservation area.

Roy is a man after my own heart. He is winner of a Good Steward Award for his life-time commitment to tree planting and conservation. Roy and his wife Sarah have owned the 900-acre Goose Hollow Farm for the past 56 years and have operated it as a certified tree farm for nearly four decades. The farm earned its name because of the many geese that stop there for food and shelter.

Roy is an inspiration – 90 years old and still with a spring in his step and a twinkle in his eye, he walks 3 miles a day in the Heaven that he’s created. He even planted fruit trees way back when, so that when he took his daily walk he’d be able to pluck & eat his favorite fruits along the way – apples, plums and wild blueberries grow out of a tangled and bio-diverse undergrowth.

We met Roy in his truck, and Lola and I leaped into the back, eager to be bumped around through his green and leafy Paradise. The trees are mostly pine and oak, and for every one that is cut down, a new one is planted. The entire acreage is irrigated from the creeks and lakes scattered abundantly throughout. As the warm, humid wind whooshed across our faces, Lola and I gazed at undisturbed groves of trees that seemed to go on forever. Living in a city as we do, the different shades of green in the afternoon sun were almost blinding, and the sweet earthy aroma was intoxicating.

As the sun fell, we made our way, crunching though carpets of leaves, to the heart of Goose Hollow, which is a precious spot down by a creek, which some call the “Happy Land,” – one elderly gentleman explained to me that no one gets bitten,stung or falls in this blessed spot – I was glad to hear this, since a young lad with freckles and a pen knife, gleefully recounted how many alligators he’d spotted just that day!

As the oil bubbled for the fish, which had been caught that morning, children seemed to appear from everywhere. I’ve never seen so many unsupervised toddlers and kids in my life. The youngest at this massive family gathering was 9 weeks and the oldest (Roy) 90.

Huge bell jars of wild flowers were plonked on ancient wooden tables, as more local folks and family appeared with enormous bowls of coleslaw, fresh fruit, grits, black eyed peas, and homemade pies. Lola was whisked off by a band of kids with sticks, fishing poles, and huge bell jars. I found myself a little nervous – was she going to be okay out of my sight? I mean she’s only 9, and what about the mosquitoes, bugs, even snakes (I’d seen one earlier that day), moreover, would these kids who I didn’t know, take care of her?

As I sat on a stump watching a 3 year-old little girl trying to copy her older brother and climb a tree (he ended up nearly yanking her arm off, as he tried unsuccessfully to pull her up to a very high branch), and a two year-old poke around with a long stick in some rather alarming-looking holes in a dirt mound, I realized that these children were free to do what children should.

I live in a city, where you really can’t let a young kid ever walk down a street alone, never mind run unsupervised in a park. I know I am way over-protective as a mother, especially as I was raised in the countryside where we ran around unsupervised for days. We learned our own lessons about how to deal with scraped knees, bug bites, which plants you could and couldn’t chew on  – and all without a parent in sight. We figured out how to balance, jump, run (away from charging bulls,) and just about any other physical skill that most kids today will never learn.

The most disturbing thing, however, is the enormous disconnect with Nature that our computer-addicted children suffer from. As we drove through Roy’s land, I realized how hard it is for most urban kids to establish any kind of connection with the very life force that they depend on for everything. How can a human learn to care about the environment, when they never get a chance to see, smell or touch it? I love the book, “Last Child In The Woods”, where author, Richard Louv, points out the  staggering divide between children and the outdoors, and directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today’s wired generation—he calls it nature-deficit—to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as the rises in obesity, attention disorders, and depression.

When the fish was ready, everyone gathered around for a blessing – thanking God for not only the food, but for each other and our beautiful surroundings. I felt this blessing, this gratitude in every cell of my being, because the blessings around us were visceral, and these wonderful people clearly didn’t take it for granted. The food was delicious and I ate my first ever Hush Puppy! I was also delighted that there wasn’t a paper plate in sight. Large china and tin plates were hauled down from Roy’s house, along with real silverware.

As the sky darkened, torches and lanterns were lit, and Lola appeared with filthy, muddy legs, torn shorts, chocolate covered face, and a huge smile on her face. She’d been fishing, tree climbing, and exploring. This was a girl who I thought was afraid of bugs, insects and snakes, but NO – get her out in the wild with a band of fearless peers and she flew. Her only irritation of the evening was when I tried to catch her to spray her legs with insect repellent. She managed to escape into the bushes without any spray getting near her, and announced triumphantly on the way home that she hadn’t got one bite and even if she had, she couldn’t care less. As a kid, we were frequently stung all over by stinging nettles, and there was no mommy round the corner with anti-sting spray – we were just told to find some Dock leaves, which grow near the nettles, or to spit on the bites.

As I lay in bed that night, exhausted from fresh air and walking miles, I realized how I need to make an even greater effort to allow Lola the freedom to run around untethered in Nature. Admittedly it’s not easy when you live in the center of a large city, but the effort absolutely has to be made because being in Nature, where a child learns to trust their instincts and subconsciously connect to something greater than themselves, is invaluable. The next time Lola and her friends poke around in the dirt in my yard, making an almighty mess with leaves, water, bugs and the like, I’ll zip my lip and go make a cup of soothing green tea!