I wasn’t on some wilderness expedition. I was walking in a tiny patch of forest by the local middle school. A few hundred meters in, barely five minutes from the road. Four decades outdoors, and this is where it finally shows up. The great owl.
It moved around a little. Looked at me. Decided I wasn’t worth the trouble of flying away.
I thought it was pretty damn cool.
And today, we start 15 Days Outside.
I’ve invited a whole bunch of people to come outside with me for a little while every day for fifteen days. And now it’s actually happening.
I’ve done a lot of things outdoors, but I’ve never done anything quite like this. I’ve had butterflies in my stomach all weekend. The kind that check in every twenty minutes to ask if I’ve really thought this through. (I have. They ask anyway.)
I’m excited. I’m nervous. And I really hope we’ll have fun together.
But first, let me introduce our main villain.
Mr. DOOR.
Because the biggest enemy of getting outside is still the door.
And for the next 15 days, we’re going to practice getting past him. He’s definitely not invited to our Monday campfires. But you are.
Day 1: Meet a tree
(A tree. I can’t promise owls.)