An Attitude of Gratitude is Key

New Outdoors Highlights, Month #11

As I fat biked through yesterday’s snowglobe forest, I paused beside the trail sign pictured above. That sign wouldn’t exist, the trail wouldn’t exist, and I wouldn’t have been there were it not for the passion and work of Ann Fogg, founding member of our local conservation commission and passionate outdoorswoman, skier, hiker, and environmentalist long before these things were fashionable. Those are the thoughts that occurred to me as I lingered there in the falling snow.

Just as the snow filled the woods, I was spontaneously filled with gratitude, not only for the beauty of the winter woods but also to Ann and others who have worked to build trails, protect lands, and steward our natural resources.

Gratitude is a wonder drug. We’ve been reading that for a few years now. As explored in an article here, the experience of gratitude increases our physical and mental well-being both in the short and long term — and therefore each of us will do well to cultivate deep and heartfelt feelings of gratitude in our lives.

Gratitude and concern go hand in hand. If we’re grateful for something, we care about it, and we’ll do what we can to protect and preserve it. These ideas are important to any environmental ethic, to the New Outdoors Movement, and also are — a…