Dear children of the future,
My mother taught me to love the earth from a young age. The earth is in everything we see and do, and as it has granted us life and love we must return life and love. She taught me to take only what we need from nature and value what it has given us. She taught me that we are a part of the earth. She taught me that we always have a choice and what we choose to do determines the future. When I think of the earth, I think of my mother and the infinite wisdom she shared with me. I think about the kind of world I would want my mother to live in, and I would want that for you as well. She loved the trees and nurtured a love for trees in me, and I want for there to be trees for you to love in the future.
We as a species have forgotten that we need to love the earth as we would love a mother, and that is threatening life of all kinds in the world. Climate change caused by humans has destroyed entire ecosystems and is changing the earth in a way never before seen in the billions of years that the planet has been around. We have to make choices for the good of ourselves, our families, the plants and animals that we share our home with, and the good of future generations of life to come. We always have the power to do good in the world and whether or how we use it determines if we will the earth’s destruction or protector.
I hope I will make the right decisions. I hope I can ensure that the things I love here on earth will live to see new generations and that new generations will live to see them. The trees are scribes of the earth and I hope they will be there to tell you the stories of the past. If they aren’t there anymore, then perhaps you will not be either. I hope that one day this time that I live in will be another chapter you read in a history book about a something that threatened the world. I hope for you will it will be a distant past that is over and done with. I hope your generation will not have to worry about human-induced climate change and that you find a way to live with the earth, not on it. And I hope you don’t forget to find the value in everything you see in your world.
To work for your future, I will try to live with the earth, not on it. I will try to change my habits of using non-renewable resources and producing too much garbage that pollutes the land, water and atmosphere. I will try to teach people I know and don’t know about how our actions affect the earth in detrimental ways, and I will try to teach them how they can make small changes to help the earth. I will never forget my love for my mother, the love she had for the earth, the love the earth showed her, and the love they both have shown me. And I will do my best to pass it on to you.
