What can You Do? Get Outside and Observe!

What can You Do? Get Outside and Observe! Spring, and its accompanying burgeoning of life is here.

The title of this section is “What are you doing” which I interpret as “What you can do”. One of the most important things a person can do is to get outside and learn to see what’s all around you. It’s vitally important that people emphasize with and love nature; how else will one want to protect it? There are many reasons to want to protect nature, chief of which is it’s absolute beauty. If you’ve learned about ecology, you will know that biodiversity is essential to a functioning ecosystem, and, among other things, this is important to the survival of life on Earth, including ours.

Ecocentric thinking informs us that all life, indeed all components of the ecosphere, have  intrinsic value. There is no better way to realize this than to get out and experience it; in fact there is really no other way. It may be trite, but the phrase “you can’t love what you don’t know” is true. And what you don’t love or care for you won’t protect.

Another reason to go out and see is  the pure joy of the experience. You’ll find that you’ve had a great hour, or half hour, and feel better for it. The wild things are there, seemingly just waiting for us to see (and love) them. You don’t have to go far, for instance the Asian Ladybird pictured above was on my front steps. There are absolutely beautiful Dandelions growing everywhere, just up the street, for instance. So, no excuses! Make a plan to go out and see what lives in your neighborhood on the next nice day. Make it a regular excursion, you’ll be glad you did.

The photographs are all from the Ottawa area, but similar beauties are available in any location. It’s up to you to go and experience them! If it helps, keep a list of what you see. So far this season there’ve been many migrating birds, lots of turtles, and a couple of dozen wild flowers out. Each passing week brings more, and different wonders for you to see.

So, out you go, and get started. Likely you’ll be amazed.