As you enjoy this autumn break when classes end Friday and don’t resume until Wednesday, I hope you get a chance to get outdoors and take in the breathtaking beauty of the change of seasons.

Do you like to go for walks outdoors? Do you like to sit on a hillside and gaze at sunsets, or sit by a lake and hear the lapping of the water against the shore, or watch the flight of birds as they head south for the winter? Do you like animals and do you ever get a chance to be outdoors with them as they introduce you to their natural environment?

Or, do you have a condition that has been called “nature-deficit disorder”?

Recently we had a best-selling author and visionary, Richard Louv, come to Saint Vincent as part of our lecture series. He spoke of a new endangered species: the child of nature.

He cited studies that documented how fewer and fewer youth are getting outdoors and discovering the beauty of nature and learning its lessons. The statistics he gave were chilling. Kids, he said, spend 44 hours a week plugged into some electronic medium. And of course, kids eventually become adults, and then the opportunities to explore the outdoors shrink as the electronic age draws us away from nature. Recently I spoke with a Saint Vincent student who told me that he ran into tremendous academic difficulties here because he was playing X-Box and numerous video games instead of studying. He said he was hooked.

Mr. Louv said that there is a new phenomenon in our country’s parks – it is called “windshield camping.” That’s when you go as a family to a park or camping ground and drive through it, look at the trees, and never step foot out of the car.

Recently a friend came to town with his two sons and I took my four with his to Linn Run State Park (about a 20 minute ride from campus, in the direction of Ligonier on Route 30). We hiked for a few hours. We were surrounded by all natural sounds – no cars, no phones ringing, no I-Pods, only nature. Quickly the ears adjusted to the slightest sounds of squirrels and birds scurrying about, and dragon flies hovering over head, and leaves crinkling under foot – it was invigorating. The kids loved exploring trails and climbing mounds and throwing rocks.

This Saturday morning hike reminded me of all that I was missing. We didn’t get to do this as a family when we lived in the DC area, and my friends came from DC and knew how difficult it was to escape the concrete jungle and get out in the wild, and so we went together and had a blast. While I was glad that we didn’t run into a single soul during our hike and thus had the woods all to ourselves, I wasn’t glad to hear Mr. Louv say that visits to national parks are down 25% in just five years.

A University of Illinois study of inner city ADD kids in Chicago documented the behavioral benefit of exposing these kids to nature. It is a tragedy that we have taken nature away from kids and put TV’s and DVD’s and video games in front of them instead. I’m in favor of a new movement Mr. Louv identified: the “leave no child inside” movement.

I hope during this break you get outdoors and reap the benefits that come with nature. It is great that our campus is so beautiful – perhaps one of the most beautiful campuses in America with the Laurel Highlands rimming the horizon and the plush green hills supporting us – but often your class routines and study habits force you inside. So if you aren’t getting outside enough and if you think you may need a dose of the outdoors, go for a walk. It will reduce stress (again proven by studies) and also engage all of your senses in a restorative way.

You study so much and work so hard, and nature wants to give back to you. That is why God created the heavens and the earth and the stars and the mountains and the animals and all living things and saw that it was good.

Have a great break!