A Stroll through the Tulip Fields in Skagit Valley, Washington: Reflecting on our Role in Nature
Skagit Valley is an agricultural haven for fresh flowers, and widely known for it's annual tulip festival each spring, show-casing pristine rows of tulips in every color you could imagine.
Before the tulips, the daffodils bloom. Luckily, I hit the perfect time visiting the Skagit Valley to enjoy both. AND some sunshine to top it off? Seattleites know this is essentially a miracle!
After the long, dreary winter in North Idaho, my eyes were finding it next to impossible to adjust to this bright, golden mass in the sky. The above photos depict the best smile I could muster with no sunglasses. Don't get me wrong, I loved every second of it and soaked up those rays like a satisfied cat on it's chair in front of the living room window.
I did not anticipate the fields being as muddy as they were. It made for a slippery mess; one girl stepped out of her rubber rain boot and it remained stuck in the sludge, while her friends had to hold her up and retrieve her boot. That is the definition of friendship, ya'll.
Spring means flowers, and babies, and new growth. I was devastated this last year when my dear, close friend Justine moved away from North Idaho, but thrilled at the opportunities and adventures that lay ahead for her. Her biggest adventure: baby Clara. It was so fun to watch Justine's belly grow until baby Clara arrived, and now it's fun to watch Clara grow into herself and develop her own personality. Justine has become a fantastic mother and no baby gets better language development than from a speech-language pathologist like her!
Clara is very cautious and has definitely adopted the motto: stranger-danger, which is why she was fairly convinced I was there to kidnap her for the majority of the morning. She wouldn't even let me get close to snap a group photo of us three girls without fussing! Doesn't she recognize my voice from the entire 9 months spent in Justine's belly? Apparently not. She's a happy girl and it's refreshing to spend time with someone that can find entertainment in a straw and coke bottle for over 30 minutes.
It truly is the little things, everyone.
I could not get ENOUGH of all this color...can these hues truly be natural? The answer is yes, they can and they are. It's moments like these that remind us of nature's immense beauty and splendor.
Currently, Americans (and humans worldwide) are being faced daily with making decisions that better or worsen our relationship with the environment. We need to remember that some decisions we make result in permanent damage to nature and the world's ecological systems. It's easy to get caught up in the hustle of our busy lives and forget that we are responsible for this. And while these decisions may not impact us immediately, today, or even 5 years from now, what kind of world do we want the next generations, or our little ones, to live in? Do we want them to live in a world with national park lands, a world where rhinos and honeybees still exist (this is whole other post in itself), and a world where you can backpack through a wilderness so vast you see wild life and may not see another individual for miles? We need to protect this beauty and stand by the decisions that previous generations have made in attempt to preserve this for the future. We are not always able to make perfect decisions every moment of every day, and we learn as we go, but that's a form of growth, is it not? Despite errors in the past, we can learn from our mistakes and promote continual endeavors to preserve the nature that remains on this earth.
Earth Day is April 22, 2017. What can YOU do personally to implement just a little bit of change to protect our home? Yes, we only have one life-time here, an equivalent of maybe 60-90 years, and then it's up to the next generation. But, I'd like to think that the people of this world aren't so stingy, selfish, or ignorant to think that what they do now doesn't have an impact later. Or even that it doesn't impact them right now so it doesn't matter.
So, let's use those re-useable bags at the grocery store that we always forget at home. Let's follow the boy scouts and pack out what we pack in. Leave it better than we found it. Recycle when possible. Get a heavier duty water bottle to use more than just one time. Plant some flowers that are bee-friendly. Don't be a litter-bug.
Let's work on making the world a place where future generations can enjoy the same (or more) natural beauty as we can today.
Better starts now.
April 2017.