To Annika, Anders, Stella, Eva, and Mickey,

To you kids,

I have been doing what I could say is my best to protect your future, but the truth is that I have not. I’ve been meaning to write this letter to you for years, but that would mean facing up to that truth. It’s hard to say that. Friends and family will say, “you do so much, you have a lot going on, don’t be so hard on yourself.” Sadly, this change requires more than just focusing on our personal habits in our spare time.

I’ve taught you to compost, recycle, make intentional purchases. Those things are good. Heck, your dad bought an electric car and wants to put solar panels on the roof. That’s a win! But it’s not enough to be a good consumer. It takes activism, business, expressing this truth in whatever form is natural. I think my expression will be in design. But as I’m in the middle of learning about that, it feels like I’m not doing much.

In writing to you, I realize that I don’t want you to be hard on yourself if you choose to not make this your cause. But it is mine, so I hope that you hold me accountable to some of what I wrote here.

I love you all very much and it’s a combination of my love for you and this great planet – the animals, the plants, the air, the water, the earth – that I hope to dedicate more time to this, starting today. It takes time to make any meaningful change, and as we sit in quarantine (which has blessed the natural earth with a break from humanity) that I have time to start.

Loving you all and hoping this finds you in an earth that makes the most of its renewable resources, respects our incredible planet, and treats its inhabitants kindly.

Mom a.k.a. Laura

P.S. Even if it’s not your cause, I hope we make incremental improvements to our habits together in the next 30 years, at least!