To all who celebrate, have a very Merry Christmas! Here is one of my latest columns that seems appropriate for this week.

The Perfect Gift

Over the last few weeks I’ve gotten my fair share of emails and notes asking what I would recommend as the perfect gift for a nature lover. My answer is so simple that people think I’m kidding. Take them for a walk outside somewhere they’ve never been. Maybe it will be somewhere you’ve never been, either. That’s it. No money, no fancy wrapping, no bows.

If someone has difficulty walking just take them outside to a beautiful place where they can sit or stand and watch, listen and smell what is going on outside. They can even sit in the car, but roll the windows down and feel the wind, smell the salt, hear the gulls. In my mother’s final weeks we took her to sit in the parking lot at her favorite beach so she could watch and hear the waves. It took a lot of effort to get her in and out of the house and the car but the serenity we could see and feel through her enjoyment and gratitude was well worth it.

Being outside is a simple and perfect gift and it’s free. We can do it anytime, anywhere, however we want. We can sit, we can walk, we can run or ski or swim. When we are outside it is impossible not to notice the weather. It is difficult to ignore the birds and the bugs, the flowers and the trees. In winter it is difficult to ignore the often arctic like conditions of the outer beaches and even the inner harbors. It is impossible to ignore the present when we are outside for we are steeped in it.

Many of us get outside every day but often we visit the same places and often at the same time each day or week. If you live on the outer Cape, take a ride to Woods Hole and take a walk out on the Knob, especially if you have no idea what that is or where it is. Walk the trails at Beebe Woods in Falmouth or follow the salt marsh trail at the old game farm in East Sandwich until you get to the woods at Talbot’s Point. I talk to people all the time that have never been to Sandy Neck. If you are one of them, make this the year you give this gift to yourself. You’ll wonder what took you so long.

There are treasures of nature everywhere we turn. Many are in our own yards or neighborhoods. Many can be found at the shore or in fields now dormant but still full of seeds and insect cocoons and hiding places. If you always walk at Fort Hill maybe it is time to take a ride and walk at the Crane Conservation Area in Hatchville. If you are partial to the Pamet River take a day to visit the Mashpee River Woodlands or the conservation areas at South Cape Beach, also in Mashpee. Of course this works the other way around as well. Just step out of your comfort zone and out of your favorite places for a while and give yourself the gift of discovery.

At this time of year many rush to the mall or online to buy the perfect gifts but for many of us, the promise of a walk in a new place may be the most perfect gift of all. It includes many things, especially the shared time between giver and recipient, making the gift even more perfect and special. Shared discoveries become shared memories, which in the end may be the most lasting gifts of all. Long after all the wrappings and bows have been recycled and forgotten the memory of the day you saw a snowy owl by chance or watched a herd of deer feed as the sun began to set will still be as fresh and clear as the day itself once was.