"Children begin life as uninhibated, unabashed explorers of the unknown. From the time we can walk and talk we want to know what things are and how the work." Those words of wisdom from Columbia University physics professor Brian Greene (Shared with me by a physican's assistant who celebrates the ways of nature when not in her ER) rings true, and I bet it does  for  most who love nature and respect the reality of science--AND keep their child-like enthusiam alive. Nature  is more than a Nat-Geo special, a donation to a green cause or classification of plants by Latin names.  When I was an often shirtless and  usually barefoot six year old without a TV scampering about a rural Connecticut landscape I knew the joy of exploring. I am thankful I never lost that sense of excitment. And in these early days of Autumn our natural world is rich with new excitement and discovery. Beaver are masterfully felling trees to create a  survival food cache for winter. Puffballs race for basketball size status.  And foggy dawns bring the melodious call of sandhill cranes in migratory flight.  It is a great time to be an uninhibated, unabashed explorer of our natural world, even if you are no longer a child. Even if you no longer go barefoot.