Please don’t wait to see the adverse effects instead adopt that river, stream, lake or ocean to make the world a better place.

I wish I had a crystal ball and could peep into it to see you all happy and safe in a world that nourishes you and that is also nourished by you, a world where the resources it provides are as valued as the people in it and not frittered away by greed and power.

When the worst consequences of climate change still feel far away today, or the barriers to acting on climate change seem steep today, I do not think about today. I think about you, and your world when you are my age.

If we work together to spread the awareness of what is occurring today, we will be able to prevent it from continuing into the tomorrow.

We ran through the woods laughing, crying, and living.

To laugh at our efforts as they were on such a small scale, too small some would say to make a difference, and then smile when we think about the number families just like ours that did the same thing.

I know I need to write this to you, and I don’t want to because it makes me so sad. I have been desperately avoiding my feelings about climate change, for many years, but especially and with greater intensity every year since you were born.

If we could all slow down, look around and connect: with each other, the Earth, the sky, the plants and rocks and animals, then maybe we can all remember to treat everyone and everything with respect and live in love.