As an environmental educator, I lead field trips for school groups outdoors. A good portion of the days, especially in the spring, are held on days with what many people call "bad weather". Rainy, cold, soggy, foggy, frizzy-hair producing, mud-in-your-sock, kind of days. Yet, the show must go on! I remind them that our skin is waterproof, and we set out down the trail to hunt for signs of wildlife burrowed out of the rain; footprints in the mud puddles.
Often the complaints continue. At that point I tell them a secret: these are my favorite kinds of days.
Everyone loves the sunny days. We post pictures of their brightly crisp colors on social media, or frame snapshots from those days on our wall. We go out to the park and sit on the grass, "Oh, isn't nature beautiful?", we say. But on the "bad days", we hide inside, under covers, like hibernating animals.
Yet, what materials are we using when we are hiding inside? The things we use daily, from where did they derive? The books we curl up with, the glass and metal that comprise our cellphones, every drop of water and scrap of food we consume to sustain our lives----no matter the weather, no matter our mood, the Earth is providing us with what we need to survive. It is the ultimate support.
So these are my favorite days. Like a beloved friend that you give a hug to on their grumpy days, hanging out in nature on the "bad" days is like my thank you. I love you even when you're down, ugly, unlovable and cold. You are beautiful. You are home.
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