Terra Ludis: Play Ground | Meet Tom Henry

Tom Henry is an outdoor educator and the founder of Appalachian Mountain Leadership, an organization whose mission is to foster and inspire servant leadership in our staff and participants. AML achieves this through outdoor learning trips. We asked Tom why he recreates.

"I think awe is an important thing in faith and it’s important for me to experience wonder, and I get that outdoors. When I feel small, it’s kind of comforting, actually. 

One of the biggest things for me is that when I go out and recreate personally, I leave my phone either in my car or at least on airplane mode – not that this thing is bad, but it definitely distracts me from connecting with myself, connecting with other people, connecting with my environment. So I think recreating outdoors has a lot to do with – it’s a space where I can re-calibrate, and de-clutter, and just become a little less distracted. In that space, I’ll discover my real mental and emotional state when I’ve got enough time away from this thing. Say I’m like a couple pitches up (on a climb) and there’s a lot of tension that I’m carrying, what I’m realizing is that “Oh my gosh, I think I’m actually really stressed out about something,” and maybe I didn’t notice that when I was going about my daily routine, but that low-grade tension is important to recognize ultimately for your health. And it’s just fun, man. These spaces that I like to go are beautiful, it’s really fun physically, like the movement’s fun. I feel satisfied after I’ve worked hard, there’s just so much that’s good about it."

Read their full interview at blowingrockmuseum.org/play

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