Part Seven: To Be Amazed

A child said What is the grass? fetching
it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not
know what it is anymore than he.

-Walt Whitman

21. The Spiritual Necessity of Nature for the Young

“To be spiritual is to be constantly amazed,” Rabbi Martin Levin says in a meeting with Richard Louv. Louv connects this with the simplicity of child-like wonder and curiosity. Louv wants to say that spirituality is deeply intertwined with simply being in nature and that children have a deep spirituality when in nature. He describes the work of psychologist, Edward Hoffman, who wrote on the spiritual life of the child. Hoffman interviewed children and adults, who said that they had experienced moments “of great meaning, beauty, or inspiration… apart from institutional religion” as children. In saying this, it is trying to get away from the work of many conventional psychologists, such as Sigmund Freud who believed that children are purely driven by instinct and self-gratification, and move toward a more spiritual perspective of childhood. Among the transcendental experiences that children have, Hoffman finds, that most of them take place in nature. Religious groups are beginning to speak for this idea that we cannot separate our children from creation, for creation has a direct link to the Creator.
Some religious movements, however, oppose this, and call it, nature worship. Surely though, respect of God’s creation is essential to spirituality, however one must be careful that he or she does not make an idol of it, like we do with so many things,
making nature into God. Louv goes on to talk about the mixing of religious groups and the science of environmentalism, saying when worship centers start going green, environmentalists will start “evoke the spiritual.” Louv overall, tries to make a connection between “God and Mother Nature,” making the case that conservation, respect, and the simple awe of nature is a directly spiritual thing, that is true in children and adults alike.

22. Fire and Fermentation: Building a Movement

Louv uses the metaphor of a forest fire burning up all the old brush and then the rebirth of the forest that comes out of it to the current situation of our children’s relationship with nature. “When we contemplate,” he says, “the unraveling relationship between children and nature, we might consider it a fire going through, and only that. We look forward to renewal.” Louv hopes to “heal the broken pond between children and nature.” He provides hopeful examples of ways this is being done in environment based education movements, simple living movements, and the many attempts at growing green and also reconnecting people with nature. Being stewards of the environment is not only a scientific matter, of survival, but of joy and growth in spirituality.

23. While It Lasts

This chapter is a conclusion on the book expressing Louv’s experience as a father and the importance of exposing our children to the beauty of nature. These experiences are necessary for our children’s growth as a whole person.

(Charlie)