Mary Isakson
Environmentally speaking: What should you do? What is most important, most efficient, and most effective?

Good questions, but in a way, insufficient. To develop a real commitment to environmental issues, you also need to ask: What do you enjoy?

I believe a mom’s attitude toward her own participation in environmental community service impacts her children. I encourage my daughters to participate in community service, and explain to them that it can be an opportunity to pursue something you enjoy. While we all have an obligation to contribute to society, it ought not be a burden and should not be a gift given grudgingly. Helping my daughters find what is right for them is a work in progress. In the meanwhile, I hope that setting an example may speak louder than lectures.

One of the opportunities for service that I have been lucky enough to find is at TheLotusGarden.org. For almost ten years I have had the privilege of tending a plot at the garden and helping to host community events, including field trips by my younger daughter’s preschool (this daughter will soon be entering sixth grade, but my trips with the preschool continue to be an annual event). This allows me to share my joy in gardening with an enthusiastic audience, and to impart increased knowledge of and appreciation for nature in the process.

The children love to see our lush "secret garden," delight in discovering the paths, the goldfish, the variety of plants and flowers. They enjoy participating in some gardening or a garden related craft project.

The entire visit takes under two hours, and the preparation for it is also fairly minimal. For me the morning is exhausting and satisfying; filled with the contagious enthusiasm of young children and a reminder of the focused attention they require. I love the time with them, and the peace when they depart, their piping voices quietly fading in the distance after the garden gate swings shut. It is always a pleasure for me to recognize one of these youngsters leading his or her family back for a visit on a subsequent Sunday.