Now, more than ever, we need nature as a balancing agent.

Some kids don't want to be organized all the time. They want to let their imaginations run; they want to see where a stream of water takes them.

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.

Every child needs nature. Not just the ones with parents who appreciate nature. Not only those of a certain economic class or culture or set of abilities. Every child.

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

Children who played outside every day, regrdless of weather, had better motor coordination and more ability to concentrate.

It's easy to blame the nature-deficit disorder on the kids' or the parents' back, but they also need the help of urban planners, schools, libraries and other community agents to find nature that's accessible.