So even though I knew that the book Both Feet on the Ground was headed my way, when it came and I read the first page, I knew that my dad sent it to me. Aside from maybe giving me a nudge toward challenging myself in some new way, learning something new, appreciating nature … I knew that this book landed in my lap from my dad because the first page or two were all about Jack London’s Call of the Wild. My dad’s favorite. Our first dog was named Buck – you know, like Buck from Call of the Wild. My dad always fancied himself a mountain man who just happened to live in suburbia.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure that the book would be something that I could get into. Written by Marshall Ulrich, it focuses on his trials, tribulations, and triumphs as an endurance athlete.

I know my dad would have said something smart ass like, “yea, oookkk. That sounds like a book right up your alley,” with his sarcasm that I understood so well. We would have had a good laugh about it. Still, I believe that he had a hand in connecting me with the messages in this book.

This book is more than a recounting of several unbelievable physical pursuits. Though those are quite astonishing and impressive. Marshall Ulrich is an engaging writer who inspires readers to look not only within themselves, but around – in nature, to garner life’s important lessons. He encourages you to do the thing you think you cannot do. To get out of the man made world and into the real world, and to encourage your loved ones to do the same. He talks about Nature Deficit Disorder – a term coined by Richard Louv, an author and journalist, to describe the costs of being separated from nature through modern conveniences and ways of living. It spoke to me, coming off of three months of pure electronic dependence. I cringe at the way our children cannot seem to separate from their devices, and it’s our fault as parents, and a society.

But there is hope – reading Both Feet on the Ground, aside from making you feel slightly physically inept, at the same turn inspires you to do something a little different, a little challenging, a little less reliant on the world inside man made boxes, and a little more comfortable in the outside world.

You could start by observing the birds in a nest right outside your door.