Gemma's Letter

My littlest, J,

Dear J

As my littlest, you get this letter.

I want you to be able to love and access nature in the way I did as a kid. I never had to think about it. It was just there.

There’s ten years til you’re an adult and I know how important it is that you get that connection now.

I’ve already tried to start it with your brother and sister. We’ve started a little rite of passage to camp at my favourite rewilding spot when you turn 12. You have a little while to wait but I’m grateful to know that place will still be there when your turn comes and that it will be better than ever. It’s a little bit of paradise that I hope can be replicated elsewhere. To me it shows there is a way to balance nature and the things politicians worry more about. The choice isn’t one or the other.

I never realised how much nature meant to me, as a country kid turned city adult, until we moved out of London.

I realised how much I’d missed the stars of a dark night sky, being able to see green fields from the window and, in the other direction, the coast. The chance to just sit, and see. Or walk and walk with nobody else around. Air that you’re happy to breathe deeply in.

We can forget how much we as humans need to feel part of nature. We’ve become so disconnected from it. That’s where all the other problems we’re facing start.

It’s what I hope the people in power will realise: it all starts with nature. They need to stop putting it to the bottom of their to do list if any of us is to have a happy, healthy future.

Love
Mum x