Planting the seeds...

Lately, my little family has been exploring local places that pride themselves on being sustainable and on cultivating stewardship of the environment. While I know that Stellan isn't going to remember any of this, since he's only 9 weeks old, but I've come to pride myself on being able to expose him to these things early on, so when he is older and looks back at photos, he'll be able to see himself interacting with the planet at an incredibly young age.

Stellan and I got to spend an afternoon at the Denver Botanic Garden with my mom and step-dad, and while the morning leading up to our field trip was something of a string of dead ends, brick walls, and train wrecks (life with a newborn?), having a few hours to spend in an urban rainforest was just the re-charge that I needed. I think he probably also appreciated the catnap he got in his stroller with all of the humidity in the rainforest biome! If you're new here, you probably don't recall my rant about my love of the rainforest back in the fall when the Amazon was on fire, but despite never having truly visited an actual rainforest, I've loved the jungle since about third grade. Part of my lifelong commitment to the environment has largely stemmed from a third grade unit study about the rainforest and all of the plants and animals within it.

As we meandered around, looking at some truly beautiful flowers and awe-inspiring plants, I realized that the earrings I was wearing were up-cycled, the shirt was organic cotton, the kimono was fair trade, and my jeans and booties were thrifted. Stellan was being pushed around in his second-hand (but still very safe... we checked for recalls and all of that first) stroller in his hand-me-down outfit. I truly hope that by having spent my life making choices and commitments to the planet, I'll be able to plant the seeds of these values and a sense of respect for the environment in my little one!