Last Saturday the youth group went out to help with a tree planting for the Nisqually Land Trust. We spent a morning (miraculously without much rain) all working together planting over a hundred native trees and shrubs in what had been an agricultural field.
Afterward, the Land Trust staff took us all to the river and talked about the relationship between the river, the fish, and the trees. One of the kids asked how long it would take before the trees we had planted would make a difference to the river. And the answer was – not for at least a generation. The work that we did that day won’t make a big difference tomorrow, or next year, or even possibly during my lifetime. But it was still incredibly worth doing.
Building the loving, just, and healthy world we dream of isn’t quick, short-term work. It’s going to take a generational perspective. We can do things now that will make us good ancestors to those future generations.
