What Do You Love about the Outdoors?

February is a month full of love, and like many of you in the EE community, one of our biggest loves is New Mexico’s outdoors. We asked long-time member and former Board President Kim Scheerer about her love of the outdoors. Here’s what she had to say:

Woodhouse toad

Woodhouse toad. Photo by Justin Meissen via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).

“Sometimes when people think of love they go BIG! Think grand gestures… something that captures your attention and is over the top! Nature and the spending time in the outdoors can be the same. A trip to Costa Rica, Alaska or South Africa can lure you in with epic animals, amazing landscapes and cultural flare. For some, it’s a once in a lifetime experience.

 

However, getting outside doesn’t have to be HUGE. You don’t need $500 dollars of equipment, 3 months of planning and a snappy “out of the office” e-mail response. Just step outside in your own backyard or walk up the street to a local park. It’s close, it’s calming and it may just be the one little bit of earth that you see most commonly. Look at the grass and shrubs or rocks and dirt around you.

 

For me, my backyard garden is the patch of the world that I take deep breathes in, that I plan tomorrow’s dinner in… it’s the place I call my girlfriends from or maybe even stare off into the world for a good 20 minutes to gain some perspective. My backyard garden isn’t glorious or amazing; no one will put this garden in a five-page spread in Good Housekeeping. Yet this garden, with its bench made of hay and wooden planks is the best place to spot Ms. Puddlesworth, our backyard toad, and to regain myself and my energy.

 

Mondays can’t really be that bad if grasshoppers keep hopping, flowers angle to the sun and ants continue their march across the gravel and roots of my yard. Maybe I just need a bit more of my Monday to happen out there!”

Now, it’s your turn. Tell us what YOU love about the outdoors in the comments below.


This article was originally published in EE Connections February 2015 [PDF].