Mother Earth is home to 7.8 billion people, 8.7 million plant and animal species 🌏🌎🌍 Her unconditional love is an abundant source of creative inspiration, beauty, and nourishment. I relished growing up on coastal marshland with salamanders and woolly bear caterpillars, cardinals and ospreys. My dad took me tidepooling every Sunday; his transition from commercial harpoon swordfisherman to father meant infusing me with awe and reverence for the wonders he felt at sea. We spent summers on his boats in Cape Cod Bay- striper fishing, sailing, lobstering, humpback whale watching 🐋 Longstanding tension between New England groundfishermen, policymakers, and environmental agencies shaped my degree in Earth Systems that took me to many people and places. Parrotfish cleaning stations on the Great Barrier Reef. Mile-long LNG trains in the world's largest natural gas field. Walrus tusks crowded on an ice floe. Appalachian coal seams. Tiger sharks swimming along remote atolls. The Hoover Dam. Fiercely protecting the Earth and her inhabitants from climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face. Yet my early career in conservation felt disillusioning; not only our lack of political will but also colonial ideologies. BIPOC significantly bear the impacts of environmental policy, but are not often included equitably in decision making. We must also listen to the wisdom traditional, local, and indigenous management practices hold, respect these communities, and welcome their voices and leadership to dismantle corporate and capitalist interests instead of their livelihoods. I can feel distraught about the future ... but try to honor the Earth now forever a swordfisherman's daughter ✨

💛 The Gentle Tarot

💜 The Wild Unknown