Today, I’m pleased to share with you a lovely short documentary film by The New Yorker, Walking Before Walking, a baby’s first sensations of the natural world. I started watching the film expecting a lot of predictably cute oohing and aahing, but it’s quite a bit more deep and thoughtful than that. This dad (plus two dogs, and occasionally mom) explores the Ch’ich’iyúy Elxwíḵn (AKA the Twin Sisters) mountains in Vancouver through his baby’s eyes. He says he’s not there to teach the baby, just to show him things and let him learn on his own.

The filmmaker, Adam Amir, is one of the Squamish people, an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast, so the film has a beautiful through-line of respect for nature and spirituality. The whole video made me feel calm and optimistic, and I hope it does the same for you. Spoiler alert: babies learn the world by touching and tasting, and this baby’s father lets him do all the things, no matter how stupid.

In stories like this, when people go up into the mountains, you want something to happen. But [traveling with] a baby, I want nothing to happen. I don’t want adventure, at least as I used to have it. I just want a nice walk to get where we’re going or somewhere worth getting to, and then to turn around before a tantrum starts.”

You can watch all of The New Yorker documentaries on YouTube.