Member-only story
The Best Reason to Get Outside
Nature needs us
Last spring, when COVID-19 set down its footprint, I heard the birds.
It’s not that I hadn’t heard them before. I live in a woodsy Seattle suburb that is tree-filled, with a lot of avian activity. And I love my birds!
But as this surreal pandemic settled in and Washington state imposed a shelter-at-home order, I hung on to the natural world like a needy child. I went on multiple walks a day, and upped my running after signing up for a virtual half-marathon.
I nearly licked the bark on my birch tree, I was so excited by its existence and the comfort it was providing me.
Every time I stepped outside I felt this new sense of good fortune to have this space at my disposal. I savored every note of the chickadee’s “Hey Sweeeetie” call. With the traffic at almost a stand-still, the spring songs and trills seemed to come louder and with more enthusiasm than ever.
“Are there just more birds this year?” I asked my husband, and neighbors I passed on their late-afternoon walks.
“They’re really loud,” a neighbor agreed. “Maybe it’s the healthier air, less car fumes; they’re happier.”
Daily, I rushed outside, away from my computer, the news, any form of a screen and the mounting death counts. I walked…
