Thinking of the past lives of the environment you’re in

Most frequently, I imagine what it was like before development. No buildings, no roads. Just the unmarred horizon and the wind whipping across the native flora, the native fauna going about their days.

This requires you to have an understanding of the geography of the area you’re in—which kind of makes it even more amazing. The more you learn, the more you realize how connected it is to faraway places, and that even though it’s changed from then, some things still remain.

For me in the SF Bay Area, that means understanding that our weather patterns are connected to the Pacific, and the Sierra. Thinking of our summer fog as a gift from the ocean, keeping our native Redwoods alive—allowing them to create their own rain during our otherwise dry summer months. Rains during our rainy season typically means it’s snowing in the Sierra to our East, which builds our glaciers and lakes and rivers, which provides municipal running water to the Bay Area and LA. When I run the faucet, I think of Hetch Hetchy (the dammed north western Sierra valley that holds the reservoir that is the faucets waters source) and I am grateful for the connection and sustenance from this beautiful place.

Imagining my neighborhood as the sandy dunes it was before development is also amazing. Thinking of the many native Ohlone tribes going about their lives throughout the Bay, visiting what we know as Alcatraz and Treasure Island from their boats, and knowing they were friends with all the local animals: unafraid of each others presence and shared a mutual respect and understanding of each other and their shared home.

The distant past helps me put my small life on a timeline so expansive I can hardly force my mind to hold it all. And the patterns and rhythms of life and existence are the through line to the future beyond. Imagining that makes me so thankful for the life I have and for the lives it took for me to have it. What are the chances? Isn’t it grand? I am so lucky to be here.