THOUGHTFUL ITEMS FOR SCOUTERS

Thanks to Scouter Jim from Bountiful, Utah, who prepares this section of Baloo for us each month.  You can reach him at bobwhitejonz@juno.com or through the link to write Baloo on www.usscouts.org.   CD

Prayer

Bless the beauty of the great outdoors; bless the beauty of our Cub Scouts; bless the beauty of our Scout leaders; bless the beauty of the Scouting program. Amen.

Boys need the Wind

Scouter Jim

In 1991, a group of scientist entered a synthetic environment known as Biosphere 2.  Great thought and 150 million dollars went into its construction to duplicate the earth’s environment.  Two years later, the scientist were forced to leave due to a lack of oxygen.  In many ways, the experiment was a success, but for the most part it was a failure.  A large forest of trees was planted under the dome, but the trees grew wildly with weak branches that would break and fall dangerously.  What the designers had overlooked is that trees need wind to grow strong.  Trees need to sway in the wind to release hormones that help them become stronger.  Boys are like trees, they need the wind to help them grow strong.  Many may have read the article in the May-June 2006 Scouting Magazine, “The Wonder of the Woods, What are Our Children Missing.”  In that article, Richard Louv is sited at writing; There’s something in us as human beings that needs to see natural horizons.  When we don’t get that, we don’t do so well.  There is something magical about taking a boy outdoors.  Many boys are not “outdoor types,” but even those boys need to be pulled away from the amusements of inside and taken outdoors to feel the wind on their faces.

http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife/article.cfm?issueID=107&articleID=1338

Green Hour

The average American child is plopped in front of a screen—TV, computer or video—44 hours a week. That means fewer hours spent outdoors, exploring and feeling connected to nature. Parents are at least partly to blame: Many tend to overestimate the danger of playing outdoors. In fact, violence against children in outdoor settings is down by 40 percent over past years, making the outdoors one of the safest places for a child. To combat nature deficit disorder, NWF recommends that children participate in at least one “green hour” every day—an hour spent outdoors in unstructured play. Here are some ideas to get your child outside and interacting with nature:

• Go on a nature walk
• Put up a birdfeeder
• Set up a tent and camp in your yard
• Go fishing
• Go on a bug hunt
• Create a Backyard Wildlife Habitat site

Find other ideas at www.nwf.org/greenhour.

Quotations

Quotations contain the wisdom of the ages, and are a great source of inspiration for Cubmaster’s minutes, material for an advancement ceremony or an insightful addition to a Pack Meeting program cover.

Scoutmasters [and Cubmasters] need the capacity to enjoy the out-of-doors. Sir Robert Baden-Powell

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes. e. e. cummings

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. John Muir

Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space. Ansel Adams

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. Aristotle

Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence. Hal Borland

What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn't have any doubt - it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn't want to go anywhere else. Hal Boyle

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. John Burroughs

Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries. Jimmy Carter

The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful. e. e. cummings

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. Albert Einstein

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I remember a hundred lovely lakes, and recall the fragrant breath of pine and fir and cedar and poplar trees. The trail has strung upon it, as upon a thread of silk, opalescent dawns and saffron sunsets. Hamlin Garland

How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains! John Muir

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. John Muir

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
William Shakespeare

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit. Robert Louis Stevenson

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain. Henry David Thoreau

Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher. William Wordsworth