Finding Fun in Vermont This Summer

Lines from a sonnet by William Wordsworth have been on my mind the past couple weeks: “The world is too much with us; late and soon, / Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: / Little we see in nature that is ours; / We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”

It came to mind because “The World Is Too Much With Us” was one of the poems Vermont Poetry Out Loud state champion Mapenzi Selemani memorized and performed during the national competition in Washington, D.C., where the Winooski High School junior was chosen as a runner-up from her region. Seven Days staff writer Alison Novak interviewed Mapenzi for a story in this issue.

The poem lodged in my brain because it’s familiar — I’ve memorized it, too! — and because it speaks so clearly to this moment, even though Wordsworth wrote it in the early 1800s. I don’t know about you, but even in gardening season I spend more time looking at a screen than I do looking at anything green.

Wordsworth’s lines remind me to get outside. And what better time to do so than summer in Vermont? The way the frozen ground and bare branches become a landscape teeming with life seems like a miracle every time it happens. I appreciated this most as a child, followed closely by the years I spent exploring the outdoors with my own kids when they were younger.

Finding and catching small creatures wriggling around at the edge of a pond could entertain them for hours. So could searching for shells on a beach or lifting up big stones in our yard to look for bugs.

This Summer Fun Issue of Kids VT includes lots of activity suggestions for families, from reading new books and swimming in pools with waterslides to enjoying outdoor performances and making frozen treats. I hope they’re helpful as you plan your days.

Don’t forget, though, that sometimes just being outside and appreciating the grass, the trees, the air, the water — even the bugs and creepy-crawlies — can be fun. There’s a lot to see in nature if you slow down and look.