Magic Everywhere

I believe there is hope, and faith, and truth, and love everywhere. When you have that, life is a Pandora’s Box full of magic.

For me, my work protecting the forest is the closest thing to magic. It is also beyond challenging. That word, beyond, is my favorite word in English, because it is so vast. Protecting forests is hard, but it is important.It is important because the forest will protect all species. It will protect you. It will protect me. It will protect all of us.

Trees. It’s such a small word for something with so much meaning! They are so big. They are so powerful.

Yesterday, I climbed a huge tree. From the top, I could see the whole ocean—as if it were mine alone. And for an instant, it was. But then, during the night, I saw there had been a dangerous snake very close to my sitting place. I saw her eyes. She saw my eyes. I thanked God it had not been my time.

I think of the snake—a species who would kill to protect those trees. They would kill even those who are also trying to protect the trees. How strange and paradoxical. But that’s life.

Protecting the rainforest is challenging in my country. There are armed groups near to where I have my project. That day, in the tree, I had trusted that the paramilitares would not find their way to me. And they did not. Not that day. I was lucky. Magic.

My country faces many other challenges: Capitalism, drugs, education, corruption, ignorance. But we are trying. I talk to many women and families to find out how they are going about protecting the forests. There are many ways, all of them valid.

We are protecting our trees, but there are forces who are committed to destroying them. Even as I write this, motosierras cut our trees in half. And I know tonight the forest will be sad. Tonight, the frog will not sing but cry. Tonight, I will not dance but cry. That tree will not breath but die.

I have done many things to help protect our forests—at an unbelievable speed. But it is not speed enough to keep the chainsaws from felling the rainforest around me. There are 40 men with motosierras around these trees right now. So close.

Those trees are my air. They are my water. They are your air and your water. We must not continue believing that this rainforest is far from where you are—whether you are in Portland, Oregon or Colombia, these trees are important.

If we don’t act, reality will slam us in the face, showing us that we were blind to not see how connected we are.

I speak to protect my beautiful community, our beautiful forests. I hear the chainsaws, and I know we have work ahead of us. Protecting forests and increasing the number of hectares of trees on this earth is a matter of life and death; it is the matter of the a lifetime.