Speak for the Trees

Written by Josie Hammond and Liv Adao

Helloooooo Tree Huggers. We hope you had a fun and fulfilling holiday break, even if you had to spend it without us and our posts. We’re wishing y’all the best in this new year and cheering y’all on, as always. 

Today, we solemnly sit with tears in our eyes as we write these words. Tree huggers, this shall be our last article… But don’t worry, the band is not splitting up due to arguments or creative differences–one of our co-authors, Josie, is leaving for a very exciting NOLS trip this upcoming week, and this blog has always been a collaborative project between the two of us. So, before we send Josie off into the wilderness of New Zealand, we decided we would offer a send-off to our most loyal fans!

And to commemorate this momentous and final Mary Oliver Monday, we have decided to finally bring out the big guns… That’s right… We give to you, finally, Wild Geese, by Mary Oliver.

Give that a second read for us, because it truly deserves it. If we had all the time in the world, we would go through every line and dissect each word, but alas, we don’t, so we are going to break it into chunks.

With the first few lines, we want to reiterate Mary Oliver’s claims in a specific way that’s relevant to this blog and what we hope its legacy will be. Especially in the wake of the new year and all its lofty resolutions, we want to offer a reminder that you do not need to be perfect. When we write our posts about ways to make your life more sustainable and compatible with the earth, we don’t expect everyone to be able to turn their whole life around and change it to be some sort of mythical sustainable superhero who never makes any sort of ecological footprint and recycles everything and lives off the grid, etc. etc. Nor are we trying to shame and guilt people for living a life that isn’t perfectly sustainable. We live in a world that runs on unsustainable systems, and we are more often than not forced to partake in some part of it. Again, we do not mean to invoke shame with our message; we only hope to offer a different perspective on how your life could be. We hope to inspire people to create tiny changes in the most realistic and adaptable ways they can. We don’t desire perfection or even greatness, really; we just hope to encourage people to do a bit better than the day before. 

Besides, we think Oliver would agree, we don’t desire sustainability, or anything really, that is motivated largely through shame and guilt. It is better to instead be moved by our love for the earth into helping and sustaining Her for as long as we can. We don’t want sustainability to feel like a chore thrust upon you by nagging parents. Rather, we want the process of making healthy and sustainable choices to feel like a form of self-care that we impart on ourselves as well as the great earth we share our lives with!!

Mary Oliver really brings it home with her powerful last few lines. In a way that can be described as a warm hug, Mary Oliver comforts us. Yes, no matter who you are, no matter how full your life is, the WORLD calls to YOU, offering itself to your imagination. As Mother Nature calls the wild geese back home, she calls each of us back home. Your home could be a multitude of things: a special place, a memory, or a person. But no matter what it is, Mary Oliver reminds us that you have a place in the family of things, this beautiful world we call home. So, let this be a testament of belonging. You belong. You belong in this beautiful ecosystem of animals, plants, and humans. We invite you to rejoice in that gladness and, more importantly, take action. Fight to keep this ecosystem alive and those who call it home. There will be times when keystone species will be threatened, sea levels will rise, people will be marginalized, and so many more times of struggle and deep sadness. However, in these moments, remember Mary Oliver’s words, that call to you like wild geese, remember that each and everyone of us has a unique and exciting place in this world, and we must fight for each other to preserve that extraordinary gift. 

With whatever gift you carry, whether that be your ability to understand others, make people laugh, really listen, or write powerful words, you matter, in our eyes, Mary Oliver’s, and the people around you. While this world is harsh, exciting, overwhelming, beautiful, and ever-changing, the love that the world has for you is steadfast. So, while Earth has a place for you, remember that you must treat Her with kindness and compassion. Respect the land that you live on and never stop fighting to protect it, because everyone here deserves their place in the family of things.

In summation, we hope to send you off with a message of kindness and compassion, especially when it comes to yourself! We live in a world that can be overwhelmingly dark and scary at times, and sometimes it affects us in ways we don’t even realize. When the world may seem to be calling for judgment, hatred, and anger, we encourage you to realize that love has and always will be the most powerful emotion and tool we have in this world. We hope to inspire you to use love as a lens with which to look through life and use it as your guiding light through wherever life brings you. Because wherever you find yourself in life, you are exactly where you need to be, discovering your place in the family of things. 

We will miss our Monday night lock-in sessions to write these because we seldom planned ahead (🫣) BUT mostly we will miss you guys!! Thank you for the time you have spent writing what we have to share and even taking the time to write something back (shoutout Nicholas). We hope to see you along the path, and until then, one final assignment: GO HUG A TREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!