I’ve been thinking a lot about the title of the panel I will be speaking on, “The Air We Share.”
Because air isn’t just something we breathe.
It’s something we share, something that connects us, every plant, every animal, every person.
No matter where you live, no matter what you believe, you are breathing the same air as your neighbors, as your ancestors, as your future children.
And yet somehow we forget.
We forget that the lungs of this planet are burning, bulldozed, and paved over.
We forget that climate justice and community care are the same thing.
We forget that this fight isn’t just about data or carbon
it’s about spaces where we can breathe.
That’s what Sagrada Gardens is to me.
A rare and sacred breath of fresh air.
A place where the Earth and us can finally exhale.
In partnership with the Sustainable Living Association, we’ve worked to bring youth together not just as participants, but as co-creators of the future. So many young people have had their hands in this soil, their voices in these visions, their hearts invested in what this space and spaces like this could become. Sagrada is a reflection of that collective dreaming.
It’s not just a garden. It’s a living example of what happens when community, sustainability, and intergenerational hope take root. It’s a reminder that real change grows from the ground up, when we learn from each other, support one another, and remember that we are not separate from the Earth, but a part of Her.
So as we imagine Our Climate Future,
I want us to ask:
Who’s included in that future?
Who has access to clean air, safe space, wild places, and community resilience?
Because the air we share is sacred.
And it’s our responsibility to protect the places that give us that breath.
With that, I’ll leave you with the piece I wrote. A love letter to that very breath, and the land that still dares to remember.
PHOTOTOTOTO
A friend once asked me why I help so much. In my community with numerous non profits and change makers around the globe. Why I’ve traveled all over the globe learning from other countries.
Why I pour my time, my energy, and my heart into this garden and my life’s mission.
They said, “the people I talk to don’t understand what we are doing.”
But I disagreed and reply, “They simply forgot.”
I have never met a single person whose body didn’t understand.
Their mind may not, not at first. But the moment they step onto the land their spirit remembers.
It’s ancient.
I’ve watched faces light up, curiosity spark, eyes brighten as something deep inside starts to reawaken.
Their soul gets permission to dream again.
Everyone understands… once they remember.
Freedom from Suffocation by Breaking Through the Cracks
For three growing seasons, I’ve witnessed Sagrada Botanical Gardens do what no HOA approved lawn ever could:
Heal.
Not just the land but the people.
The HOA says I’ll be fined.
For what?
For letting life live? For supporting pollinators before we destroy all biodiversity there is left? I didn’t know wildness was so offensive to you.
That I have to pay for the weeds on my property because nature “took over” what’s “not hers.”
But what is nature if not the rightful owner?
As my friend Adam says,
“A weed is just a plant someone decided they didn’t want in that spot.”
But the Earth knows better. She breaks through the cracks. She begs to grow wild again.
She remembers.
And she pushes through anyway. Through concrete. Through fences. Through every place we told her “no.”
She breaks through the cracks because she must.
If she doesn’t, she will stop breathing.
Then so will we.
Sagrada is where she gets to break free. Where nature can be herself.
To roar. To root. To rebel.
Unmanicured. Unbothered. Untamed.
It’s a sacred rebellion against a world that tries to sterilize and control beauty.
It’s where she takes her power back from a world obsessed with trimming and damming her.
This is sacred defiance.
This is nature refusing to be silenced.
The Systems That Strip Life Away
We romanticize nature while simultaneously stripping her bare.
We say we love nature, but we only love her in cages.
We buy honey,
then poison the pollinators.
We buy flowers in shops,
but mow down the wild ones.
We say “Save the bees,”
but only the cute ones.
The rest…the wasps, the solitary, the natives, the misunderstood ones..
we kill without question.
We only protect what’s “pretty,”
and destroy what we don’t understand.
But it goes deeper than bugs.
That same pattern plays out everywhere.
We fear what we don’t understand.
We kill what doesn’t look or act like us.
We bulldoze biodiversity and build sameness.
We say we love nature but we only love her when she’s bland and predictable.
Like a flavorless meal served up on a plate with no soul, no spice, no history.
We bulldoze vibrant ecosystems and replace them with sterile lawns and identical houses. We replace native prairie with ornamental grass that gives nothing back, like a meal with no nourishment.
Condos. Concrete. Strip malls.
Sterile. Silent. Soulless.
Silent neighborhoods.
We replace ecosystems with identical boxes, lined up in rows, sucking life from the land and soul from the people.
A monoculture green grass that feeds no one and no thing,
But here at Sagrada we’ve saved one of the only remaining wild plots in the entire city.
Zoom out. Look at the map.
You’ll see we’re surrounded by concrete.
You’ll see we’re suffocating our mother.
We are suffocating the soil.
We are drowning in development.
The lungs of this city are collapsing.
And yet, right here, somehow, a heartbeat remains.
This land is fighting to breathe,
and Sagrada is her gasp for air.
We are surrounded by concrete
but still, we grow.
Still, we remember.
A Rare & Sacred Space
This is not just two acres.
This is a preservation site.
A future sanctuary.
A heartbeat.
There are very few spaces like this left in Fort Collins main city outside of places like Gardens on Spring Creek.
We say we value parks and yet we spray them under cover of night.
Hazmat suits. Poison.
Carried out in the darkness like a secret shame.
If it’s not safe to breathe, what are we doing?
If it’s not healthy for us, how can it ever be healthy for Her?
What happened to ancient knowledge?
To listening before acting? To partnering with the Earth instead of poisoning her in the dark? What happened to integrating the old ways with the new, to remembering that modern solutions mean nothing without ancestral wisdom guiding them?
We say we reside on Indigenous land, but too often it’s just a land acknowledgment without action.
Recently, I was at a city council meeting supporting First Nations’ call for their land and rights, voices that have historically been left out, allocated only two minutes to speak, waiting for the invitation to share their wisdom and leadership.
I stand here representing those who too often have no seat at the table: the land, the First Nations, the bees, the trees, the water, the lungs, the very breath we all share. Because if we are to truly care for the air we share and the future we build, we must listen to all those who have been silenced or forgotten.
Sagrada is something else entirely.
It’s free.
A place where all species from native bees to young people to elders, are welcome to come home.
Before It Was Sagrada…
For five years, I sat in my home overlooking the garden,
staring out at the land that would one day become Sagrada.
I felt like a busy bee, buzzing with a restless hope,
yearning for a chance to pollinate, to spread seeds of healing and renewal.
Four years of silent prayers and wild visions.
What if there was a place here where people could gather?
Where food, ideas, music, and dreams could grow together?
Little did I know, just a few houses away, my dear friend Heather was dreaming the same dream.
We weren’t just dreaming separately, we were downloading the same vision.
Because this isn’t just my mission, or hers…
it’s all of ours.
And when I met Heather, I made a promise:
To do everything in my power to protect this space,
to protect this symbol of hope.
You Are Made of Her: Somos la Tierra (we are the land)
You are made of the same elements as this land.
Your heart burns with Grandfathers Fire.
Your lungs breathe because Brother Wind sings.
You move because Mother Water flows through you.
You dance because Pachamama grounds you.
We are not separate from the Earth.
We are her. She is us.
She has given us everything: food, air, water, medicine, beauty.
And we owe her more than just thanks, we owe her reciprocity.
The Interview With the Land
One day, a group of us sat quietly with the land and just listened.
No agenda. No tools. Just presence.
And the land spoke back.
We each wrote down the messages we heard
and we realized something profound:
Though we were sitting apart, the messages were almost the same.
Together, we created a collective poem from Her whispers:
“People like you give me hope
Life is coming
Growing takes time, you’re not alone
Soft and constant movement
See opportunity, it’s always there
Gratitude and connection.
Go slow and be kind
Be resilient to humanity’s ways
Exist as you are
Rebirth is coming
We are of the stars”
Why I Keep Going Back
Because I have a dream:
That one day, my children will look at this land and see what’s possible.
That if their momma could build something out of a seemingly empty plot… so can they.
If their momma could stand up against systems that suffocate us all… then so can they.
We don’t have to be scientists or experts.
We just have to care for our Mother the way she cares for us.
Because we all share the same need:
To connect.
To land.
To each other.
To something deeper and more true.
We’ve forgotten how to play.
How to imagine.
How to be.
But the land remembers.
And so do you.
Sagrada is a Chance
A chance to remember who we are.
A chance to reconnect.
A chance to do something different before it’s too late.
So if you’re hearing this message, and you’ve ever felt the call.. get involved.
Your guides are calling you back home.
Put your hands in the soil.
Speak to the bees.
Sit under the Elm.
Listen.
And if you’ve already been here…
Thank you.
From me, from the land, and from all the generations who will one day call this place sacred:
Thank you for holding on.
so to my friend who says people dont understand. I argue they do
So to my friend who says people don’t understand what Sagrada’s mission is, I say they’ve just been silenced. Disconnected. But deep down, they know. We all do. Because you can’t kill truth, you can only forget it. And the land is calling us to remember.
