“I am a deeply empathetic person. I knew on my first field expedition with Chris that I'd need to develop serious new emotional, psychological eco-warrior shields for life on Medicine Trail: and fast. The sort of... mind-boggling environmental and cultural devastation... one has to face-to-face with in this line work can be harsh and heartbreaking. The state of wildlife, for example (all around the world) is in such desperate, tragic collapse, one wonders what is actually left of many of the species. I mean - where are all the fabulous, fascinating non-humans supposed to live? Yet still we pontificate, proliferate, dominate... use, use, use.

We humans are crazy that way.

Most people chose to bury their heads in the sand when confronted with the truth of what we have done and continue to do to our home planet. And part of me can't blame them for sweeping all that stuff under the rug, behind the door... the self lobotomy for survival choice. I get it. Too painful. Everyday life and especially the rat-race and especially keeping up with the Joneses can be enough of a headache and handful without having to take a step back, fess up, make changes that make it even harder to keep up with the stories and systems we've created and that cage and cocoon us. Makes you feel like a grain of sand on the beach or a drop of water in the ocean in terms of The Bigger Picture. I mean, what can really we do and will it ever change and all? I get that.

But then...

But then, every now and then we get tossed what I've come to call a “Hope Bone”. Every now and then we get to experience what we are working to try to ‘save’ (seems such an over-used, trivialized word but that’s what it is) in some profoundly beautiful way. Like living in remote tribal communities and painting the faces of darling, bright, openhearted native children, or coming suddenly upon an unspoiled, vast desert valley covered with a seemingly infinite carpet of vivid Spring flowers, or being caught in a perfect tropical downpour in primary rainforest after a long steamy trek through the jungle, or cradling a light-as-a-feather newborn Andean lamb, or sneaking up close and super quiet to watch a family Pygmy Marmosets eating a banana (they look like itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny Ewoks, you know!) So many stories, and Chris has a host of his own.

These are the things that renew and refuel us, and that make it all OK. These are the experiences that make it all worthwhile. These are the experiences that remind me that we all share a magical world, full of wonder, mystery and adventure. A world worth fighting for.”

- Zoe Helene, Cosmic Sister