Holding Both

   I had the incredible experience of visiting Alaska this month and having the most one of a kind experiences with nature, and wild life. In addition, we were able to view some of the most spectacular aspects of our environment.

     Early on we learned our proposed visit to Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center was cancelled due to melting, pieces of glaciers breaking off, and the dangerous flooding of a nearby town.

   This sobering moment of witnessing climate change first hand was not lost of me. All my years of teaching and my own basic knowledge of science came home to roost right then and there..95% of the glaciers are melting.  Although glaciers have always been melting it has never at this rate, and the pace is increasing. A new proponent added to the mix is black carbon. Black carbon is dusting all the glaciers and comes from all the recent fires (think recent fires in both Canada and California). Black carbon acts like an accelerant in terms of glaciers melting, and it also heats up the atmosphere. 

     Sailing home we were lucky to atleast sail through the glaciers themselves, and witness their frozen beauty. It made me feel so small and humbled.

   On another note, (but maybe not) I need to be transparent, and share that I have opted out of current news for many months. It was a needed mechanism.

   Crippled with the severity at what I had observed personally I grappled with ways to process the soberness of the event. I decided then, and there that when I returned home I would try to do something to make some changes in the world. 

Something. 

I would be active in small groups to help make little changes. I had already dabbled a little, but now I would step up the participation and the consistency.

So I held both. 

Immense sadness and tremendous hope.