On a number of drives throughout my childhood, my mother would suddenly pull over the car to examine a flower by the side of the road or rescue a beetle from tragedy while I, in my late teens and early twenties, sat impatiently in the car.

Though Mother’s Day follows the Earth Day, for me, they have always been related to each other. My mum has been “green” since she became concerned about the environment. Part of this habit was born of thrift(节俭). Like her mother and her grandmother before her, mum saves glass jars, empty cheese containers and reuses her plastic bags.

Mum creates a kind of harmonious relationship with wildlife in her yard. She knows to pick the apples on her trees a little early to avoid the bears and that if she leaves the bird feeders out at night, it is likely that they will be knocked down by a family of raccoons(浣熊). Spiders that make their way into the house and are caught in juice glasses will be set loose in the garden.

I try to teach my children that looking out for the environment starts with being aware of the environment. On busy streets, we look for dandelions(蒲公英)to fly in the wind; we say hello to neighborhood cats and pick up plastic cups and paper bags. This teaching comes easily, I realize, because I was taught so well by example. Mum didn’t need to lecture; she didn’t need to beat a drum to change the world. She simply slowed down enough to enjoy living in it and with that joy came mercy and an instinct for protection.

I am slowing down and it isn’t because of the weight of my nearly forty years on the planet. It is out of my concern for the planet itself. I’ve begun to save glass jars and reuse packing envelops. I pause in my daily tasks to watch the squirrels race each other in the trees above my house.

Last summer, in the company of my son and daughter, I planted tomatoes in my yard. With the heat of August around me, I ate the first while sitting on my low wall with dirt on my hands. Warm from the sun, it burst on my tongue with a sweetness. I immediately wanted to share with my mum.

During her childhood summer holidays, McIntosh, her mother and little brother would make the short trip from Glasgow to Loch Lomond to rent a boat, pack it with camping supplies and head for the islands. The trips became a tradition.

However, her mother became unwell. Any thought of summer camping trips faded away, as McIntosh, aged 13, became one of the young carers across Britain with round-the-clock responsibility for her parent’s welfare. The young girl’s world became about helping her mother. At 18, she found herself anxious and unsure of what to do next. It was at that point that she was encouraged to apply for a 19-dayresidential course with Outward Bound, which prides itself on uprooting youngsters from their home comforts, giving funded places to those like McIntosh from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Four years on and McIntosh credits the course with making her who she is today. It was so transformative that she is training to become an outdoor instructor herself. “I learnt more about myself in those 19 days than I had in my entire life.”

“When you’re in the middle of nowhere, you feel quite vulnerable. You learn to bond and trust quite quickly,” she recalls. Then came the moment described as one of the best of her life. The group had been asked to climb Ben Nevis but when they were close to the summit, they realized they had not left enough time and had to turn back. The next day they returned and completed it.

“Climbing Ben Nevis twice in two days, that’s not something I ever would have thought I was capable of doing at the start of the course,” she said, still beaming about it years later.

To become an instructor, McIntosh is gaining qualifications in climbing, skiing, and mountain leadership, as well as studying for a diploma in counseling. She wants to take her mother, who is losing her eyesight, camping again. “I hope that before that happens I will be able to take her out and show her the things that I get to see,” she said.