roots

Getting outside is my favorite family activity. The kids vibrant creativity and inquisitive, slow approach to every little thing. The uninterrupted time to just be. Together. I find that when we are home, I fill quiet spaces with chores. And I stack them on top of each other. I check email while drinking my coffee, I unload the dishwasher while Margot tells me about her day at school.

When we are hiking or swimming or skiing or biking or camping — we connect, deeply. We connect with ourselves, with each other and with the natural world creating a transcendent boom. Every step into the simple, lovely act of existing outside together pushes us into ourselves and opens us to each other.

As Ruby’s carved pumpkin’s smile sags on our deck and as I sit by the now every-morning stove fire, as we prepare for a very frosty camping trip this coming weekend, I am sharing images from our August car camping adventure. The one where it was 100 degrees, we drove through forest fires, swam in rivers and slept in our bathing suits. They’ve been patiently waiting in a folder (ahem, next to 23 other folders) to have the stage here. It’s time.

I have been thinking a lot about what it is that I hope for my children to be or have. I want my daughters to pursue life with authenticity and altruism. I hope they are lifelong students, leaning into beautiful, powerful, fulfilling, inclusive, productive acts of love. I want them to appreciate, feel and engage with great passion and integrity, even when – especially when – it’s hard. I want them to find abundance right here, now.

And I want family – both by blood and by choice – to hug my daughters’ commitment to happiness and truth-seeking. I want their relationship to always be as real and important as the hearts that beat in their chests.