One of my students told me that every time she learns the name of a plant, she feels as if she is meeting someone new. Giving a name to something is a way of knowing it.

When we raise our children, we relive our childhood. Forgotten memories, painful and pleasurable, rise to the surface.... So each of us thinks, almost daily, of how our own childhood compares with our children's, and of what our children's future will hold.

From 1997 to 2003, there was a decline of 50 percent in the proportion of children nine to twelve who spent time in such outside activities as hiking, walking, fishing, beach play, and gardening, according to a study by Sandra Hofferth at the University of Maryland.

If a child never sees the stars, never has meaningful encounters with other species, never experiences the richness of nature, what happens to that child?

All spiritual life begins with a sense of wonder, and nature is a window into that wonder.

Nature is beautiful, but not always pretty.

We can conserve energy and tread more lightly on the Earth while we expand our culture's capacity for joy.