To the children I hope to someday raise:

I am so sorry if the world you are seeing and inheriting is a ghastly one. But I hope that is not the case. I hope your lungs are full of nothing but the freshest oxygen, that you talk to flowers, that the honeybees are thriving, that Florida is not underwater. I know that generations before me have raped the Earth, and I know that it still happens today, despite our best efforts to stop blowing the tops off of mountains, stop pumping oil under the Great lakes, stop burning fossil fuels in the name of progress. But I fight every day, every single day, for you, the inheritors of Earth.

It’s why I stood proudly at Standing Rock when the Water Protectors put out a call for activists to stand beside them in unity to convey the importance of our sacred land and sacred ecosystems and the water that gives us life. It’s why the coffee I’m drinking right now is in a ceramic mug, with coffee beans grown sustainably and with fair trade certification, and don’t use the much easier plastic disposable k-cups. I’m far from perfect. Not every choice I make is always clean for the Earth and its critters. I know that. It’s not easy to be sustainable in American society right now; in fact, I would say it’s downright impossible.

But Life is the most resilient phenomenon I have ever encountered. It has pervaded through five global mass extinctions and continues to come back, regrowth, every time, taking magnificent and awe-inspiring shapes and forms, from mice to elephants to strangler figs. I know that she is bruised and aching right now, but we will take care of her, nurse her back to health. I’m not sure all of the beauty of life will make it through, but I hope a lot of it does. I’m trying. I study the Earth. I’ve taken classes that taught me how to meditate with it. I teach environmental justice to younger students and interested community members because it’s unfair that marginalized human populations bear the brunt of environmental degradation. I march for Climate Justice.

I want it to all be here, for you. For everyone. For all living beings, not just people.

It is the sweetest sight to see.

Love,

Rachel

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More Messages to the Future

Dear Tomorrow,

My climate promise is to reduce electricity at home. I will turn off the TV and lights when I’m not in the room.

Dear future me,

If we don’t stop cutting down trees for agriculture and to build houses then the future generations will not think about trees when they hear the word Earth.

Dear Tomorrow,

We want to let others know about how to fight climate crisis.

Dear Future Family,

As I’m sitting here trying to think of the best words to say to you all, I am thinking of one major thing: that I can only hope that you all get to experience the incredible beauty created by our planet.

Dear Tomorrow,

I promise to stop eating beef.

Dear Tomorrow,

The only way to survive it, even if you don’t feel like you’re winning, is to keep your hands on the rope.

Dear Madeleine,

First of all I hope we succeeded in our dream that yours is a better world than the world of 2021. Today, the forests are burning, the sea levels are rising and wild weather is everywhere. But we are working hard and I’m confident we will succeed.

Dear 2050,

Our planet is crazy. I pledge to be an innovator to make sustainable living real.

Hey kiddo,

I’ll be here to tell you all the ways I have fought for the health of our home, and fought to protect all of the wide, open spaces for you to run in. When you’re old enough, we can fight together.

Dear Jamie and Jason,

My inspiration was the two of you. It started with thinking about the world you were inheriting and what your future was going to be like. But then you taught me how important it is to listen to you – to listen to young people.

To my grandchildren’s children,

I became an activist to be part of a force to save the natural world and go 100% clean energy.

To my great-great grandchildren,

I don’t know your name
or even if you’re alive,
but I’m doing all I can
to make sure you survive.

I’m your great- great grandmother
who lived a century ago
in a world far different
from the one you must know.

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