Saturday, September 25, 2010

Nature, I miss it so...

Here I sit in  my sealed home. The weather outside is fabulous at a sunny 75F. And we? We are sitting inside. In the days before I never closed a window and the chirps of birds and chattering of squirrels were my background noise.   When I grew up I mostly lived in the country. The hills, dales, forest and orchards of southern Germany were my playground as a child. And later on my parents had a small hobby farm with about 6 cows, sheep, goats, pigs, all kind of fowl and a dog. And through all of this I grew atuned to nature. I understood her. I could feel the changes in the wind, the angle of the sunlight streaming through the trees. I knew every tree and shrub in my surroundings.  Every summer my parents and I spent countless bugbitten hours plucking all manner of berries and in the fall we harvested mushrooms and apples. What wonderful times these were.  Now this has all changed in my life and I feel so sad for my children for this. A connection to nature is priceless indeed and it's one my children don't have. My daughter's allergies to countless trees, grasses etc confine her to a life spent indoors. She is getting better and we were able to spend some time outside this year compared to the previous years where her time outside was usually the amount of time it took her to get from a building to the car and again in reverse.  I firmly believe that her improvement is primarily due to the fact that she is homeschooled and the shots which she's been getting for a year now.  We know she'll always have allergies but she was able to go outside in the garden this year.
I love reading blogs like 'BuntBlume' formerly 'BuntGlass' and  'Untrodden Paths'. The connection to Nature which these mothers forge would have been similar to mine. Maybe I should simply take a leap of faith and try a bit more now that Sissy reacts less and recovers faster.  How can my children become good stewards of a world they have no connection to.

6 comments:

Eva said...

Marlis,

I know about allergies too. My children have several food allergies (although they seem to be getting better) and I sneeze when it gets dusty or moldy. This can be so hard! Maybe a trip to the coast would help your daughter? I'm no expert, but in Germany children with allergies always get sent to the seaside.

Marlis said...

A trip to the coast would definitely help. Temporarily. After all we'd have to come home again. We are lucky because she's been improving so much this last year. She'd love the seaside I'm sure!

A Homeschool Story said...

Best of luck with this. It sounds heart-breaking, but I have friends who have overcome horrible outdoor allergies, in the same geographical location, and gone on to play baseball every single year and play outside every day.

Blessings,

Angela

Marlis said...

thanks for your kind wishes, it's getting better. A lunch with new friends outside (recently :) ) would have been an impossibility a year ago. Now it just calls for an additional benadryl or two. The change of weather in recent days brought on the mold allergies and her allergy shiners are back. On the bright side, should she be 'Team Edward' for All Hallows Eve she won't even need makeup save for some lipstick. *grin*.

Eva said...

One other thought: Have you ever tried bee pollen from your area? That's supposed to help. Does your daughter also have food allergies?

Marlis said...

We haven't tried that, but we do use local honey.