It’s a Sin to be Indoors on A Day Like This…

On sunny days, my mum often used a phrase passed down by her own mother: “It’s a sin to be indoors on a day like this.” For my sister and I, this frequently used tagline was a signal to get out of the house and into the garden, or else. But as I’ve gotten older, it has come to mean much more than outdoor playtime.

The world is a chaotic and terrifying place, on most days. And if you’re struggling against the tide of work, bills, taxes, childcare, illness and other worldly complications, it’s very difficult to even take a few moments to look up from your cubicle, let alone get outside for playtime. But then life goes by too fast, and we look back with regret and bitterness about failing to recognize the beauty of what is all around us and how blessed we have been to be a part of this world.

So, “It’s a sin to be indoors on a day like this,” became a mantra for me to remember to look up and out of the window and live in the moment that God had created for me. As kids, this meant literally being forced to look out of the window on long car drives rather than immerse ourselves in video games or comic books. It was very annoying at the time. However, an important lesson - and habit - was learned.

But there was one more aspect to the idea behind the saying that has stayed with me throughout various transitions, and has now returned to my life with full vigor. On “days like this,” in our green little village in Buckinghamshire, England, there happened to be a cluster of children who were not, by any means, being encouraged by their parents to enjoy fresh air and sunshine. Many parents worked, in fact, or struggled through their lists of weekend chores, without paying much attention to their bored, moping children. My mum quickly recognized the silent (and sometimes not so silent) whining our village emitted on weekends. There was “nothing to do,” said the kids. My mum, however, thought differently.

And so began a series of weekend adventures with the neighborhood children, all of us tumbling into the back of mum’s boxy Suzuki mini-van and heading to the outdoor swimming pool or the park or the beach. Some days we didn’t stray far from home, but ventured together into Penn Woods to discover tree climbing and how to make trails. We brought our dress-up clothes and played Robin Hood or Peter Pan, or rode our bicycles up and down the hills. We dug for clay in the roots of fallen trees and made statues of fairytale creatures. We picked flowers and fell over in the mud and had the time of our lives.

Having those experiences taught me spontaneity and awe, neither of which I would enjoy my life without. Nor would I have developed the courage to pursue my passions. Without spontaneity and awe, it may have been the case that I would not have developed passions at all, but apathy. And apathy is the killer of joy, ambition and love.

I feel very blessed to have learned such an inspiring lesson. I believe it has kept me away from the darkness at the lowest points in my life, and fed all the desires in me that are beneficial to my soul, rather than parasitic.

But it’s not an easy lesson to share. It requires time - quality time - from the worldly woes that cause us to bury our heads in the ground. My head has been buried for the last few years as I have struggled to deal with my mum’s death in 2005, followed by an intense schedule of graduate school, work, work and more work. My life has been blessed in the mean time with a wonderful husband, a full and vibrant family, and a home surrounded by the trees that remind me so often of Penn Woods. I have, however, met with sadness and apathy face to face in the last few years, seeing it in the eyes of teenagers throughout my time reporting on schools in Los Angeles. I’ve seen it, sadly, in the teenagers I know, even perhaps within my own family network.

Now that I am in a place where the chaos of the last few years is beginning to subside, it feels like the time is here to stop merely remembering my mum’s mantra, but to share it. And for that I need help.

It doesn’t take much, as far as I can figure, to share an afternoon or a Saturday with a teenager accustomed to boredom and apathy. It doesn’t even have to cost anything, except time and a little enthusiasm. I am surrounded by so many wonderful and inspiring people that a project such as the one I have in mind seems like it has the potential to really flourish.

So here it is:

Mum’s Van.

My sister and I have been talking about this for a while now. Mum’s Van: an organization that pairs inspiring young people (twenty-somethings) with teenagers to just “hang out” in a different environment, or to pursue that “flighty temptress, adventure” (yes, that’s a quote from Dumbledore. I couldn’t help it.) It can be a Saturday afternoon, or Sunday morning. It could be an after-school hike or an evening stargazing.

All it takes is a walk in the woods.

If you’re interested, or have any ideas about how to get this moving, please email me: emilyhenry@adaylikethis.com or leave a comment below. And keep an eye out for Mum’s Van… adventuring soon!