Most of the young people I talk to are carrying a heavy emotional weight right now. It pains my soul to sense what it feels like to be the generation that came of age in covid times. Children even younger are feeling it too. You’ve seen babies struggling with their masks. It brings tears to the eyes to wonder what the world will be like when they come of age.

For peace people it’s incumbent on us to put out some good visions at times like this. We won’t get that from the news.

This story from the Network Weaver’s Facebook captured my imagination. Here’s a collaborative network that wanted well-designed outdoor learning spaces for the children of their home, Boston. They didn’t just want a nice schoolyard in their own upscale neighborhood. They wanted every kid in Boston to experience this. So they started out with a pilot school and made a nice space. But nobody used it much. That was disappointing.

But they didn’t five up. They started over with a network approach, and built an 18-year collaborative network that engaged teachers in 80 schools, landscape designers, city officials and others in Boston to design the unique outdoor learning space that would work for them.

BOSTON SCHOOLYARD INITIATIVE: AN 18-YEAR SUCCESS STORY OF COLLABORATIVE STRUCTURES THAT SCALE IMPAC

I’ve never been to a school in Boston so I can’t report from personal witness. But I know this. Youth today need a glimmer of a vision for some positive future They need it right now, but the window for hope is wide open. Just to ponder ideas like this opens up space for delight that could carry us through a rough school year.

Could there come a day when Arkansas children learn science, math, art, music, great literature, and all in an outdoor classroom where they’re also learning to love and appreciate the great mamma earth that nurtures us all with life and breath and joyful connection even from six feet away? Doesn’t that give you welcome shivers of pleasure at a time of covid