I've spent the past 9 days off the grid on a camping road trip up through Northern California. My partner and I traveled through the Sequoia, Stanislaus and Mendocino National Forests, Sonoma, Marin and Big Sur, taking in all the beauty that California has to offer, from cool forests and lakes to vast sunny meadows, sweeping mountain views and curving coastlines. Nature is where I recenter. It brings everything back into focus, allows me to breathe, and reminds me what is really important.

More than any other time in my life, I am conscious of the feeling of living through history. June was an uncomfortable month. An awakening of sorts. Between the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic affecting the global population and the current fight for racial justice here in the United States, a massive spotlight has been turned on the flaws in our country -- our police force, our unchecked capitalism, the racism built into the systems that are the foundation of this nation, the human and natural resources that we have been exploiting without regard -- and we must not look away.

The energy and momentum that we're experiencing is due to a unique set of events that have all converged, and we have the distinct opportunity to make change right now. We are not only living through history, but we are all actively participating in its creation with our actions -- or lack of action. We have a chance to create real change, to ensure a better world for future generations, not only for people all across the globe, but for the very survival of the planet itself. We cannot go back to "the way things were". There is no going backwards. The world has already changed, and it is up to us whether we force it to drag us along with it kicking and screaming, or whether we embrace the change as an opportunity to re-imagine the very world that we are living in, and be a part of its evolution.