Jim Bradbury
Even before I went to war, time outdoors was a haven. Outside, I could be whoever I wanted to be. I made friends with dragons and knights, kings and queens, and kids from all over town on playgrounds and city parks and down by an old culvert that helped with runoff from big storms. When I came home from war, I instinctively headed outside for a few weeks, thinking that it would be enough to surf off the pain of that fight for a few weeks.
It wasn’t. I needed to spend more time outside, but it would be a couple years of white knuckling it before I found a way to spend daily, weekly time outside. When you get the chance, you should go.
In the last few years, there have been members of my family, and old friends I’ve known since the days out at the culvert, whose worldviews have differed ever more sharply from my own. Outside, however, we are still able to connect. We can laugh and share stories of old campfires. We can dream about other expeditions together. We can share, even as grown men and women, delightful squeals at seeing a deer, a bird, or a funny squirrel. When we meet people on the trail, we don’t inquire about their religion or political views, their sexual identity, or whether they are recent immigrants or indigenous. We accept them for who they are on the trail. We perhaps share with them some information about the direction they are headed, we smile, and we walk on, enriched from the experience.
Time outside, even if it is sitting on foldout lawn chairs and staring into the forest, versus hiking deep within it as years past may have allowed, gives us a chance to share our common humanity.
I know it may not be like that for everyone, but time outdoors gives us that chance more than any setting or place I’ve ever experienced. And on the Friday after Thanksgiving, when hopefully you are gathered with friends and family, I hope you can find the time to #OptOutside together, or even alone. Sometimes we all need a break!
I also understand that many hard working men and women might not get the opportunity to #OptOutside on Black Friday because they must go to work that day in order to provide a holiday season to their loved ones that otherwise might not be doable. Even then, I hope you can still find some time to relax and laugh in the outdoors, before or after commitments. The important thing is to enjoy and be grateful for the great outdoors that is so abundant for us, whether it's the trees and plantings in a boulevard strip, a local park, or the grandest of our national parks. How you choose to #OptOutside is up to you.
Build some memories, meet some new people, perhaps start a new family tradition, and enjoy this beautiful country.
Watch as Stacy Bare, director of Sierra Club Outdoors and a veteran of the Iraq War, speaks about the importance of the healing powers of the outdoors. Learn more about Sierra Club Military Outdoors and the benefits being outdoors has for veterans.