Heed the 'call of the wild'

Good family life, good health, having a sense of accomplishment - indisputably, they're important values for most of us.

They were at the top of a worksheet in a training seminar I took on goal setting. Also on the values sheet: having friends, helping others, freedom, doing exciting things and having a good reputation.

Then there was No. 9. "Other: (What is it?)" Without hesitation, I scribbled, "Going outside."

Where would I be without the great outdoors? Lost, off-centered, off-kilter, unbalanced, in need of lifelong therapy. Call it how you like, I'd be there.

So, frankly, would many people I know and love.

Whether you consider your outdoors pastime a round of golf (my bother-in-law's version), a game of tennis (my mother's), going to the beach (my sister's), going fishing (my father's), working in the yard (my husband's), or doing cartwheels on the lawn (my daughter's), it's all OK. Just as long as you recognize the importance of being out there.

In these days of economic stress and longer workweeks for people everywhere, it feels like the call of the wild is yelling, not just beckoning. Go kayaking, go boating, go hiking, go walking, go swimming, just go.

FLORIDA WEEKLY PHOTO BETSY CLAYTON A canoe trip on Fisheating Creek produced dozens of turtle sightings for outdoors writer Betsy Clayton and her family. My father, George, calls it recharging his batteries. He's not talking solar batteries, either. The man is an Oregonian, where gray skies and Gore-Tex dominate. He doesn't mind when it's not sunny, though that helps.

An e-mail recently captured his battery recharging, and reading about it picked me up mid-week. "The day on the river was outstanding, even though I had to get up at 4 a.m. The weather gods were nice, no rain and blue sky and clouds most of the day. We put six steelhead (ocean-going trout) in the boat; can't keep any of them because they are all natives. … We also saw, deer, turkeys, goats and herons. Quite a day spent on the river. I am exhausted; bed early for me tonight."

What a day.

My sister, Emily, a Los Angeles-based working mom who spends enough weekdays in the car that she appreciates the fiveminute drive to the beach Sundays, e-mailed me last week about parenting.

"Some parents want to pass on certain priorities in their life, like education, to their kids. You could say outdoors/the love of nature for sure," she wrote to her outdoorsy sis, me. Thing is, she could say the same, despite her urban lifestyle. She and husband Jon love to play with sand buckets and balls on Southern California's shore. Her two girls will grow up understanding that is how their family of four recharged its battery weekly.

At the end of the goal-setting workshop, the discussion leader had us list barriers - "What gets in the way of living by your values?" Person after person mentioned lack of time.

Aren't we fortunate in Southwest Florida, I thought, that the outdoors is so accessible? Last Saturday's schedule at my house, for example, involved a bunch of errand running and obligations. But we stopped for lunch at a riverfront restaurant.

Pelicans and cormorants gobbled fish. Dolphins attacked schools of crevalle jack. Glass minnows darted in gin-clear water off the seawall. A spring breeze caressed us. Sunshine blessed us.

When waterfront dining counts as an outdoor activity that recharges your soul in the midst of a busy schedule, then you know you and your family are among the lucky ones - living here in the outdoors.

- Betsy Clayton is a freelancer based on Pine Island and also is Lee County Parks & Recreation's waterways coordinator. Contact her at boatingbybetsy@ yahoo.com.