I am writing this on your 7th birthday, today. On your 38th you’ll know all too well that in 2019 we failed to stop carbon emissions in time to prevent catastrophic changes. Venice, Miami, Manhattan, and many of our greatest coastal cities are changed forever as the oceans rose into the streets and canals of the centers of our civic life.

Dare futcher self how did you akt dring the climit raly. How much plastick did you yous. how manny times did mom drive the car. Did you Walk to School much or bus? I hope you didn't yous much plastic. I love the wild. I don’t want it to disuper. The world is the buty within.

It is currently the Christmas Holidays, 2019. It has snowed mildly twice. As I think of young Nanette; I wonder what to envision for her in 31 years.

I can’t even tell you how much you have changed my life for the better. I feel like before you were born, I almost exclusively thought of myself. What I wanted. What I didn’t want. I was asleep in a drama of my own self-obsession. But something about growing and feeding you with my own body. Those nights spent holding, walking, rocking – broke something open in me. A great love for not just you – but a greater care for others, a greater appreciation for beauty, and so much more tenderness around my hopes for the future.

It can be and should be beautiful, it should always contain beauty, beauty that is not produced by human hands but is the unique, undeniably intricate amazing complex, breathtaking, and ever changing symphony of the natural world,

My biggest hope is that we will still have mountain trails to hike on, cold mountain lakes to fish in and soak our feet, and clear skies under which we will still marvel at the stars.

Life, our lives, are made meaningful by our impact. May we challenge ourselves to clean up toxic environments and relationships. May we foster healthy growth and nourishing creativity!