In Awe of Nature Around Us at CRL

For the past two summers Camp Riva-Lake has explored inspiring the strong bonds of sisterhood and strength in our girls as our theme. This summer we will be tackling an even bigger concept – AWE. Since the late 2000’s I have followed Richard Louv, http://richardlouv.com through reading his books and seeing him speak. His premise is that our children are not exposed to nature enough, and this is having a negative impact on society as a whole.

His “nature deficit disorder” was a common theme at the ACA National Conference this past March. Opening speaker Florence Williams kicked everything off with her personal story of depression that developed when she moved from Boulder CO. to Washington DC. Her painstaking research took her all over the globe examining cultures that seek to inspire nature and awe as an antidote to technological advances and pursuits. https://books.google.com/books?id=8kl8DAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=definition+of+nature+deficit+disorder&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjt8qfagr3aAhUKVK0KHYJ2AlAQ6AEISzAG#v=onepage&q&f=false

So how do we combat this lack of nature in our lives? Very simply, we spend time outdoors, experiencing the awe that sunsets, star filled nights, animal interactions and beautiful flora and fauna inspire. These simple pleasures are bountiful on our little slice of heaven on Tim’s Ford lake.

I hear from all of you that you are fighting the device/social media battle. I know we serve as a 1-month crash diet from electronics every summer for your girls. This summer we will seek awe everywhere it can be found: from the small blue dragon-fly that scoots along our creek as if “walking on water,” to the majestic eagle that nests on campus every few years, to the fruits and vegetables that mature from small buds in our garden and end up on our salad bar.