Getting Energy, by a 7-year-old

The outdoors is an incredible tonic for anyone. Most parents, who can, will send their kids outside when the kids get grumpy or lethargic or bored. Works like a charm.

We have sent our daughter outside to play, looking at each other and saying, "for energy." As in, to burn. As a small child's, though, it sounded different. I finally learned her perspective as the weather turned warmer here this very spring:

She says, "I want to go outside to get some energy." ("Yes, please!" says the harried parent.)

Now, though, I think she's really caught on to something. When you get more exercise, for instance, you have more energy. When you get fresh air (oxygen) you have more energy. When you get the sun's rays to produce Vitamin D that's a good thing, as Vitamin D helps boost the immune system and is seriously implicated as an anti-depressant. (For a lot of "anecdotal" evidence, all you really have to do is look at people's faces on a sunny day after a series of rainy days.)

She's on to even more: Imagine how many television sets would be off if we were outside. And how many computers would be in idle mode. And how much less we would be eating (the high-energy cost foods) out of boredom. And how we could tolerate more temperature extremes if we were out in them more often. We would use less of the planet's energy resources.

Maybe we should all be going outside more to "get some energy."