In the environmental education world, we start many meetings and workshops with the introduction questions, “What started your love of nature? What was your favorite place in nature as a child?”

Every person in the room has a story to tell — of a brook behind their home in the country, or a patch of trees in a park in the city. Every person who loves and cares about nature now can pin it to a special place or places in their past.

This being the season of Thanksgiving, I want to emphasize my gratitude for having had such experiences myself. I had lots of them.

We lived in the city, but my brothers and I always had a special spot or two in the yard where Mom didn’t mind if we created our special world under a large tree.

For many years, we had “empty” lots near us that were nature oases of tall grasses, rodent tunnels, and more. My parents were poor enough that vacations meant camping trips and days off were spent fishing in nearby rivers, so we spent many wonderful, wonderful days in the woods near Portland, Ore.

Do you have those places in your memory bank? Will the kids growing up now have those kinds of memories?

I am grateful for my moments in nature because they taught me (and continue to teach me) about so many things other than the scientific details of biology. I learned my place in life. I learned that I am important and I can influence the space and creatures around me by what I do. If I moved sticks and soil to suit my construction of a hut, I displaced some ants, spiders or worms, I stirred up soil and created a mini dust storm, or I stressed a bird or even killed something. I learned that I could do some good things, too, like putting baby birds back in nests.

Being in nature continues to teach me the other side of the equation, as well. Walking by the Puget Sound, I learn that I am not so important in the bigger scheme of things. I don’t have power over everything around me, and I have to fit into a larger landscape and a larger community of beings, and find ways to live peaceably with tides, flooding, death, and lots of things beyond my control. I learn about respecting the common good for all the creatures in my place.

I think these are the biggest and most important lessons any of us can learn. And they can all be learned by being in nature. This is why I work today to create and preserve the natural spaces for all of us — young and old — to spend enough time with nature. It is for our own good and for the good of the Kingston community.

Every good, thriving community needs certain common resources like a library, churches, schools, and parks. But I think every community needs a nature center, too, and a group or two of citizens protecting every natural space we have left. A nearby natural space is just as important, and maybe more important, than all the community buildings, classrooms and swing sets.

I hope you can join me in giving thanks for the natural spaces in our lives, and in working to hang on to them for generations to come.

Stillwaters is starting a new Sustainability Discussion Group in November; if you are interested, call 360-297-1226.

— Naomi Maasberg is director of Stillwaters Environmental Center. Contact her at naomi@stillwatersenvironmentalcenter.org