Laundry List: To feel connected to the Earth

1. Take slow steps toward the back door, carefully opening your gateway to the world. Then in one moment, run. Run out the door and through the grass. Feel the green blades on your feet, the sun on your face, the air rushing at you. And at some point, collapse to the ground and lay on the grass. Smell the dirt. Feel that.

2. Go somewhere like a raspberry garden or orchard and eat fruit straight from its home

3. Have a picnic

4. Walk through the countryside or the mountains

5. Go swimming in a river, lake, or pond.

6. Go to a natural place and look up at the sky. Do nothing but listen, smell, see, and hear what's around you.

7. Put on your sweater, hat, and boots. Hop in your car, waiting for your heat to warm up, and drive to your coffee shop to grab something warm. Now go back outside and stroll through town, seeing the spice colored leaves, and sipping that drink.

8. Wear fleece-lined leggings and a cozy jacket, drive up the canyon and hike through the spice leaves

9. Go to a football game and notice the brisk, chilly air. Feel how different it is from the games at the beginning of the season

10. Pack all of your warm clothes and camp in October. When you wake up in the morning, start a campfire and warm up

11. Pick some precious, orange pumpkins

12. Go ice skating or sledding and recognize the chill and dampness of your clothes where they touch snow and ice

13. Sit on the floor in front of your Christmas tree and smell its pine-y wonder

14. Start a garden full of zucchini, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, and strawberries

15. Find a hidden meadow high in the mountains and spend the day reading there

16. Ride a sweet horse through the hills

17. Visit a flower garden