I took the boys to the beach yesterday. I know that is amazing for January, but we were not the only ones there. It was a gorgeous day, and has been gorgeous all week, so we decided to take advantage of it. I kept thinking about my nature deficiency book. The boys were digging and running on sand dunes. We even took the dog and let her see the ocean for the first time. While we were climbing dunes I heard a woman tell her young son not to climb them, "we have to protect these areas." That is a lot of what this book is about. We have turned nature into something that children aren't allowed to enjoy. It is as if nature is a museum and the "Do Not Touch" rule applies. Certainly there are places that need to be undisturbed, but this was not one of them. The grasses on the dunes are not rare and the footprints we left would be gone with the wind in an hour. Enjoy nature.