As a child going outside was something that excited you. The freedom of running through the grass or climbing the trees was something that always excited you. As times change and technology improves going outside is not a happy thought anymore. In John Stilgoe’s Outside Lies Magic and Rachel Carson’s The Sense of Wonder, they both discuss the feelings you get while going outside and the importance why we should go outside. Though both have different reasons why we should both books are relevant to today.
At the beginning of Outside Lies Magic, John Stilgoe tells us to, “ Get out now” (Stilgoe, 1). He then explains, “ Not just outside, but beyond the traps of the programmed electronic age so gently closing around so many people at the end of
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In The Sense of Wonder, Carson, and her nephew are exploring the different landscapes of Maine. Carson tells us senses are important while exploring nature saying, “ Sense other than sight can prove avenues of delight and discovery, storing up for us memories and impressions” (Carson, 83). She first explains the way a smell can help us while exploring nature saying,” For the sense of smell, almost more than any other, has the power to recall memories and it is a pity that we use it so little” (Carson, 83). Smell just like any other sense is important, but the smell does remind us of memories lost before. The smell of grandma 's house or fresh baked cookies can remind us of many memories. The second sense Carson emphasizes is hearing. She explains, “ Hearing can be a source of even more exquisite pleasure, but I require conscious cultivation” (Carson, 84). Hearing, epically while exploring in nature, can be beautiful. The crack of leaves while you walk or the sound of birds ringing in your ear can be music through your ears. In The Sense of Wonder, Carson urges us to use all of our sense, use emotions and abandon teaching while exploring nature.
In both Outside Lies Magic and The Sense of Wonder, Stilgoe, and Carson both tell urge you to go outside. While Stilgoe explains the importance to go outside and Carson explains the feelings to experience while exploring. Both
Why Getting Outside is So Good for You. SparkPeople, Inc., 2014. Web. 9 May 2014. .
The debate over technology being healthy for our children has been a debate that has gone on for years. It appears as though the tragedy that children are missing out on hands-on nature is definitely something we all must learn to accept. Nicholas D. Kristof hits the nail on the head when he suggest that we try to preserve nature but we don’t promote natural activity such as hiking, biking, camping, and “discovering the hard way what a wasp nest looks like”. Kristof does an effective job getting the point across on experiencing nature and limiting technology. He is a father that is destined for his young daughter to know about the outdoors with personal experimentation. Kristof’s intended audience is geared toward people that want their children and themselves to be involved in nature, but they have been consumed with this technological age.
The water was calm, like the morning; both were starting to get ready for the day ahead. The silent water signals that although rough times occurred previously, the new day was a new start for the world. As I went closer to the water, I heard the subtle lapping of the water against the small rocks on the shore. Every sign of nature signals a change in life; no matter how slight, a change is significant. We can learn a lot from nature: whatever happens in the natural world, change comes and starts a new occurrence. I gazed over the water to where the sky met the sea. The body of water seemed to be endless under the clear blue sky. The scope of nature shows endless possibilities. Nature impresses us with the brilliant colors of the sky, the leaves, the water. She keeps us all in our places and warns us when we are careless with her. After all the leaves have fallen from the trees, she will offer us the first snows of the year to coat the earth with a tranquil covering. That will only be after we have recognized the lessons of autumn, the gradual change from warm to cold, rain to snow, summer to winter.
Creativity and imagination can be truly beneficial to our health development, without too much influence of fear. The age does not matter, anyone can benefit from experiencing time with nature. Let’s enjoy spending time with our loved ones outdoors and connect with nature, because connecting with nature it is the only form of life keeping us alive and healthy.
At first, the idea of escaping into nature was cumbersome. Meandering aimlessly concerned me. My mind was stained with negative thoughts of solitude and being alone first felt demoralizing, but slowly my earlier assumption dissipated, fully disappearing from the subconscious once I broke the boundary and stepped into nature. Emerson notes, “In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, - no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair” (8). I too believe what Emerson says. In my own rush to “fit in” I dismissed my own morals accepted others as if they were my own. I put my energy into modeling myself according to the contemplation of others, all the while ignoring principles
In the “Impoverishment of Sightseeing”, John Daniel seeks to inspire readers to experience nature beyond observation. Daniel clearly differentiates between the minute appreciation received from sightseeing, and the aweing admiration you can feel if you engulf yourself in nature. Through sharing his personal experiences and scholarly analysis, Daniel demonstrates the importance of being vulnerable to the environment that is necessary for comprehensively understand nature. He argues by allowing ourselves to be naked to nature, one can understand how the natural World has the power to limit our existence.
In the opening paragraphs of his first chapter, Emerson finds that nature, like stars is always present and creates a reverence in the observer, but is also always inaccessible (14). Emerson also brings forth the idea that not everyone can really observe nature, but one must have the correct mental/spiritual state, as a child might. He discusses the improving aspects one can find in nature - youth, reason, and faith. Intrigued by visual perceptions, he claims that he looses contact with everything but nature becomes a 'transparent eye-ball' and feels that "I am part or parcel of God" (16). Emerson's emphatic words are perhaps the best description of the enthralling emotions of a 'sublime' experience as possible.
When thinking about nature, Hans Christian Andersen wrote, “Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” John Muir and William Wordsworth both expressed through their writings that nature brought them great joy and satisfaction, as it did Andersen. Each author’s text conveyed very similar messages and represented similar experiences but, the writing style and wording used were significantly different. Wordsworth and Muir express their positive and emotional relationships with nature using diction and imagery.
Today we live in a world that keeps us on the run. There is a way to get in contact with anyone at any given time. There is no such thing as ‘getting away’ because we have created a society of people that want to be found. But it is also through this technology, the same one that keeps us connected to the outside world, that we can get lost. The simplest video game can help a person escape into a different reality, spending hours on end in front of a computer screen, looking for nothing in particular on e-bay. This gets us lost. We engulf ourselves in things that have nothing to do with our daily lives because we’ve had enough, our life is too much to handle. So we focus on AIM, or video games, anything that can take us out of our life, and into something better. But then where do we draw the line? When does it become okay to spend an entire day on the computer because life was too stressful? Or, still worst, when the life we lead to get away, becomes our daily life. We lie about our lives and retell occurrences that really did not take place. Things that happened on our mental breaks become reality. These lies then have to proceed and grow, because we don’t want to be exposed. That cannot happen because that would add more stress, but what we don’t realize is that by perpetuating the lies we become more and more stressed. The exact reason we needed to get away has come back full circle. In the play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the line between truth and illusion has very nearly disappeared. No longer does the reader know when the character is telling the truth or embellishing a lie. Even still is the character himself is being honest to his personality.
Imagine walking down an ancient path amidst a forest of tangled and twisted trees, some of which have existed since before a time even great grandparents can remember. The air echoes with sounds of life, and the fragrance is that of cedar or juniper… or something not quite either. The living things that dwell here, bridge a gap in time that many are totally unaware of and for the reasons about to be explained, may never become so. The beauty that surrounds this place is unexplainable in the tongue of man, yet its presence can be felt by all who choose to behold it. At least for now…
scientific understanding detracts from an esthetic appreciation of nature: "The vastness of the heavens stretches my
... of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child” (Emerson, pg. 510).Such imagery allows the man to understand that nature is more than a collection of integrated objects. Moreover, to appreciate nature, a man has to free his mind from society’s distractions and to see nature through the eyes of a child. Children are inexperienced and will not reminisce past events while observing nature. Seeing this world through a child’s eyes gives the world more meaning and value.
Each day we walk outside and we see something beautiful. It is called Nature. Outside it holds so much more than we can see. We love the world around us and it is up to us to see it. The world shows us all that it can hold. The problem is we look at the world and see simple things. We see things that have no meaning, but are just objects. However, everything in Nature can have a hidden meaning. “Vivid pictures of landscape, but in them the Yankee point of view through which nature is seen is as vital to the meaning as the things portrayed.” (Lynen) Nature has meaning behind each part of nature. The problem of nature is each person has a different interpretation. One thing that might seem beautiful and wonderful to me is complete terrible or scary to another. We base our meaning off our own experiences. People who have been trapped alone in the forest are usually scared of going back into a forest by their own. We base what we know and how we feel off of past experiences. Robert Frost wrote the poems, Acquainted with the Night and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening which describes nature that has three main hidden meanings: things hidden in the stars, mountains hold amazing features and pure white is a beautiful and wonderful thing.
The familiarity of the woods, the natural urges my body has to be outside and be active in the setting that most people in today’s society only truly see in movies, if that, reminds me of other ventures into the woods, the citrusy smell of pine mixed with the smells of wild grasses and various flowers create an unmatched bombardment of scents. These scents stimulate the mind in a calming way unlike any medication or music ever could. The aroma of the forest sends chills down my spine, causing you to get the urge to explore and to absorb yourself in to the natural wonders the human body
Outdoor learning activities are beneficial for students’ health, including psychological, physiological. Outdoor learning activities offer students opportunities to move their