A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune, that as adults, most of us have lost this true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring.
“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder,” Rachael Carson wrote, “he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy excitement and mystery of the world we live in.”
I was blessed to have the companionship of my Great-grandfather and later, after his death, the encouragement of my Great-grandmother to continue poking around on my own. It is this indestructible sense of wonder, this unfailing love of woods and water inherited from my Great-grandparents that has often sustained me in adulthood.
And it is this same inborn sense of wonder I hope to help my grandchildren keep alive. A sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and unknown, exploring nature by becoming receptive to what lies all around them, inspired by long lazy meanderings through the woods and along the waterways of Drummond Island.
“This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world." - John Steinbeck
Photos taken during our first kayaking adventure this season
out on the waters of Potagannissing Bay, April 23rd 2010.
The children are my beautiful/handsome grandkids -
Madison and Drew Baker.
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