最近收了几本作家写自然生活的东西。不能走近真正的自然，只好在纸上亲近——画烧饼做午餐，看地图当旅行。

Jeff Watson博士说过，我们都应该到外面去，在不同的季节和不同的天气，在白天，在夜晚。无触摸，去倾听，去感受，去好奇，去汲取水面的月光，去感觉吹过头发的风……

Every once a while we all need to go out, to give ourselves up to a favorite landscape, to explore and experience and wonder. We should do this in every season and all weathers, by day and by night. We should touch and smell and listen. We should absorb moonlight on water, feel the wind in  our hair, and discover the other creatures with which we share the world. We should be forcing ourselves to reconnect with wild nature and our origins. We need to do this before it’s too late.

Naturalist（现在大概不好叫“博物学家”）John Lister-Kaye把这段话放在他的At The Water’s Edge的扉页——这本书也许就是那段话的实践，它比那本著名的隐士写的Walden更契合今天做不了隐士的读者。尽管也许我们像钟山之英草堂之灵嘲笑的对象，但能假装去那山里走一会儿，也是极好的呀。