Mars Won’t Save Us: Why Protecting Earth’s Wild Spaces is Our Only Hope

Your Happy Place (if it's Nature like mine) is Dying - Join the Fight to Save Our Planet Because Nature’s Decline Threatens Us All

Nature’s Healing vs. Human Greed: How I Recharge While Fighting for Our Future

Because following current events is taxing (and four or more years is a long time), I've been more mindful recently of taking time away to do things that recharge me.

That means spending more time outdoors in Nature with David and mindfully making time for the those closest to me (because when I was in survival mode, I stopped doing that and only focused on the work).

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Nature is my happy place! What's yours?

For me, spring is a time to leap into new habits. I also want to make time to go out in Nature (while the weather is nice enough because Texas summer heat is torturous).

Nature isn't just a place for me; it's where I feel most at home. It's been my sanctuary for as long as I can remember, especially when I'm near the edge of a river or any body of water.

I can navigate easily in Nature and have never gotten lost in the woods (after many years off-trailing and playing on game trails), unfortunately I don’t navigate cities and streets with the same ease.

Lyric, sitting on a huge bolder near a water fall on their trip with David and the dogs through Colorado a few years ago. Lyric has short green and purple hair, and is wearing all green.

There's a unique tranquility in the sound of wind in the trees and the gentle flow of water. It's a feeling of peace that I often yearn for when I'm forced back into the chaos of the modern world.

For me, the natural spaces hold a reverence that I've never felt in any man-made structure.

Nature is not just a place to me but a spiritual experience. I've always approached it with the utmost respect.

Nature and the elemental energies that flow within are my sacred places.

I go to Nature when I need answers, wisdom, and guidance or to re-center myself.

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I feel an energy in Nature that's hard to put into words.

The energy feels different in Colorado (and other unspoiled natural spaces) than in a city park (or a natural space that's lost much of its wildness). This energy feels healthy and vibrant in the wildest places but weaker in less wild places.

In a busy city, there is a different energy entirely (one that feels hostile and makes me uneasy).

Growing up in Central Texas, I spent many of my happiest hours playing in the wooded areas, rivers, and springs around the small town I grew up in (which is now much more populated).

The land, waters, and creatures have suffered as the human population has increased.

Over the past thirty years, many of the springs have stopped flowing, the rivers (drained, dammed, and full of run-off) have been devastated, and the land pillaged by developers (with little to no concern for the Earth) has been left dying and sick.

As the water tables have dropped (due to an increased demand for water), many rivers, lakes, streams, and springs (where I spent my earliest years swimming, fishing, and wading) have slowed, become stagnant, or stopped flowing entirely.

They've dammed the rivers, creating lakes so they can live in places they weren't meant to build houses (because of flooding or not having enough water), but this prevents the river from doing what it needs to do from time to time (raging and purging itself clean).

This disruption to the rivers' natural flow has led to a decline in the ecosystem's health, affecting everything that depends on it.

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I hope this helps,
- Lyric