Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Texans of a certain age recall when families commonly spent time together outdoors. Today, though, individual demands on time—coupled with the rapid proliferation of affordable personal technology—keeps everyone busy indoors, and in different rooms.

We are out of touch with one another and with nature. It’s a brand new year, with renewed opportunities to discover why life is better outside. For your health and for your peace of mind, resolve to go outside and to play on your own, or with family and friends in tow, for at least one hour a day.

Enjoy a walk in your neighborhood, or a nearby state park, and remember what it is like to take long purposeful strides and to breathe deeply of air neither artificially cooled nor heated.

Leave the smart phones turned off and the MP3 players at home and listen instead to the voices and music of nature: bird songs, squirrels skittering in fallen leaves, and in tree branches, the sound of the wind, and the mournful howl of coyotes.

Skim a flat rock across a lake, and watch the sunset from its banks. When you reconnect with nature, you reconnect with a deeper level of yourself.

That’s our show for today…Our wish for you this New Year is that you enjoy many happy hours in nature with the ones you love…because Life is Better Outside.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Recreation: New Year's Resolution Play Now | Play in Popup | Download