106
No.
Paradise Found
I go to nature to be soothed and healed
and to have my senses put in order.
John Burroughs, 1837-1921
More than 100 years after Burroughs’ assertion, studies are confirming the
positive effect that nature has on mental health and a sense of well-being.
This comes as no surprise to many of us on Kiawah. Whether full-time
or part-time residents, or visitors, when we drive onto the Island, we take
a deep breath and tune into the soothing magic of Kiawah and the outside
world drops away.
In all things of nature there is
something of the marvelous.
Aristotle, 384-332 B.C.E.
Charlie, our 13 year-old grandson, maintains, “The beach is one of the best
parts of Kiawah. You can go there in the morning and find sea turtle tracks
in the sand; you can go there in the middle of the day to explore with only
the birds at the end of the Island; or you can go there in the early night
when the sky has all the colors in it and you’re just there to feel the sand
between your toes.”
Even at 13, Charlie knows the restorative power of nature. He knows that
here on Kiawah with “marvelous” all around, time should be taken to feel
the sand between one’s toes, to listen to the song of bluebirds, cardinals
and painted buntings and to see osprey cruising overhead. Nature abounds
here.
What do I love most about Kiawah? I love...
• to roll down the car windows and breathe deeply, while the
earthy fragrance of pluff mud refreshes my spirit.
• to spot dolphin and pelicans to the right and left and to note
the ever-changing colors of the salt marsh.
• to drive through a thriving maritime forest as I enter the
heart of the Island and pass snowy egrets clustered in trees.
• to have the possibility of spotting a shy mother bobcat or
her frolicking kittens, a doe leading her fawn to the tastiest
greens, a loggerhead nest boil as the hatchlings make their
way to the sea.
• to know I am home and it’s still a special place. A place I
can go to feel the sand between my toes. A place I can go
to be soothed and healed and have my senses put in order.
We need the tonic of wilderness.
Thoreau, 1817-1862
Our wilderness here on Kiawah is a 21st century version, a careful
blend of nature and development. In order to assure that the
Kiawah we love exists far into the future, we must all take some
responsibility. The Kiawah Conservancy is working with all
Island entities to ensure that visitors and residents of the Kiawah
of tomorrow will be able to have that same moment of elation we
know so well when they cross the Kiawah River and come onto the
Island.
Chairman, Kiawah Conservancy Board of Trustees