lol “great outdoors” aka the OK outdoors. The great indoors. Yeah 👍🏻

 It is funny how life does a complete 180 like that. We spend our childhoods begging for five more minutes of daylight, only to reach adulthood and realize that "outside" has too many bugs and not enough climate control.

Here is a poem about that shift:

## The Great Retreat

The screen door was a starting gun,

A blur of limbs beneath the sun.

I used to treat the porch like glass—

A fragile thing I had to pass

To reach the creek, the climbing tree,

And all the world that waited, free.

The kitchen clock was just a ghost;

The yard was where I lived the most.

But seasons turn and shadows grow,

And now the pace is soft and slow.

The wild wood is a distant view,

Seen through a pane of polished hue.

I’ve traded grass for woven rugs,

And evening air for coffee mugs.

The doorbell rings, I stay quite still—

A hermit on a windowsill.

The child I was would surely stare

To find me in this cushioned chair,

Safe within these four sturdy walls,

Ignoring all the nature calls.

For once I chased the summer light,

But now, I simply say goodnight

To every trail and open sky—

It’s much more cozy here, and dry.