The Dog Park inside McCarren Park, Brooklyn, New York

I just reread The Goodness of Rain: Developing an Ecological Identity in Young Children by Ann Pelo. I love this book. It reads like a love letter to the natural world and to a young child, Dylan, whom Ann spends a year with in and around Seattle during Dylan’s second year of life. I was inspired to pull the book back off the shelf because of our grandson, Jack, who is eleven months old.

More that anything else, this book is about slowing down so that we can focus our attention fully on the world around us, as a young child will do, given the time and context. Ann and Dylan head outside every day, no matter the weather, that is often rainy in Seattle. Sometimes, they walk the familiar neighborhood, visiting trees and bushes, ponds and berry patches, as old friends that change day to day and through the seasons. Sometimes, they take trips to other parks, the ocean, apple orchards, and forests. In all of their explorations, Ann’s intent is to take time, to point out, to listen and to respond to Dylan as she seeks to see, hear, and touch the world as Dylan does. Ann begins her book with this poem by Ernest Thompson Seton from Woodland Trails, (1940).

I will show you the trail

and this is what it will lead you to:

a thousand friendships that it will offer

honey in little thorny cups,

the secrets of the underbrush,

the health of sunlight,

suppleness of body,

the unafraidness of the night,

the delight of deep water,

the goodness of rain,

the story of the trail,

the knowledge of the wetlands…

Ann’s chapter titles reveal her themes and her discoveries during her year with Dylan: Finding Place, Walk the Land, Practice Silence, Learn the Names, Embrace Sensuality, Explore New Perspectives, Create Stories, Make Rituals.

I took The Goodness of Rain to read in Brooklyn a few weeks ago when we were lucky enough to spend a week with Jack and his parents. Jack lives across the street from a wonderful park in Greenpoint, McCarren Park. Ashley and I were able to spend long stretches of time with Jack in McCarren Park, sometimes three hours, exploring and walking the paths and open spaces with towering Northern Red Oaks, crab apples, heavy with bunches of tiny apples, and ornamental Ginkgos. And robins, grackles, starlings, and house sparrows in abundance as in any city park. I am sure that there are also other birds as we noticed a pair of bird watchers with binoculars and serious intent. And squirrels. Never have I observed squirrel behavior so intently as with Jack. Hiding, munching acorns with their fast moving jaws, running and climbing up the tall oak trunks and leaping from the branch of one to the branches of the next tree. Jack points, watches, and exclaims, “Ca! Ca!” as he does for most moving, living creatures.

At the playground, we put Jack down on the rubber mats that form the ground of the space. Jack is most interested in the cracks in between the mats. What tiny green plants are growing there? What is lodged there? Small leaves from the surrounding crab apples, and soil. All to be investigated, touched, taken out of the cracks, and put back in again. This is Jack’s time, Jack’s agenda, Jack’s focus. We sit on the mat with him at his level and watch and exclaim and wonder with him about it all.

One day, after a longer walk to the East River State Park, we find the wide, stately Hudson River flowing fast and a big wind. Jack sits in the sand and finds small stones and sticks. That is what he wants to focus on…finding them, holding them, touching them together, making marks with them in the sand.

And, we go to the dog park! a fenced in area where dog and dog owners run free and have fun, playing throw and catch and chase games, romping and playing. Jack loves the dogs! He laughs, kicks his feet, is delighted by their energy and their interest in him. They are at his level. They love him.

When I got home to Vermont, I made a book for Jack with many of the photos of our time together exploring McCarren Park…a board book with a letter to Jack in the introduction. I got the idea for the letter from Ann Pelo who concluded her book with a letter to Dylan about their year together. If you can read The Goodness of Rain, please do. Learning to love the natural world provides a foundation and a solace for all of our lives. This is true for babies, and it is true for us, at any age, as we discover and rediscover our place in the natural order of things.

Dear Jack,

In October, we took some beautiful walks with you in your park, McCarren Park, right across the street from where you live. We walked on sparkling, blue sky days. We saw robins taking baths in the puddles, lots of dogs, squirrels with bushy tails eating acorns, running, and climbing tall oak trees. You pointed to the robins and the squirrels and said, "Ca! Ca!"

You love the cracks in the mats at the playground and the little green plants growing there, and the small yellow leaves that you can pick out with your fingers. You were delighted with the small and big sticks that you found, too. You loved our long walk to the East River State Park, where we found the big Hudson River flowing on a windy day, and sand, and stones, and sticks.

We are so lucky to be able to be with you in your parks and see the world through your eyes, and listen to it, and touch it, watching you discover new things every moment. This is your park in the autumn. We wonder what it will be like in winter and in the spring? Could we visit again and discover it with you?

We love you! Lulu and Yaya

Jack and his friend, the Golden Retriever.