We asked our social media interns to share with us what inspires them, and we’re sharing their responses with you. They inspire us!
What Inspires Me?
by Sara Swenson
What inspires me today
was too a childhood curiosity:
Nature’s wonders, great and small;
Its endless generosity.
Nature gave me the glitter
of softly fallen snow;
It gives me sweet aromas
as new spring blossoms grow.
It gave me skies of blue
and sweeping seas of green;
Then a whole palette of colors
for the fall finale scene.
I loved to watch the turtles
basking in the midday sun;
To stand and face a deer or fox,
or glimpse them as they’d run.
The sight of bold bald eagles
circling on the breeze;
The patterns and the cracks
preserved in ice as lakes freeze.
All these things that I loved
made me want to know more.
How did this all work? I asked;
What was all of this for?
This curiosity led me
to a collection of knowledge;
Like why those lights up north glow
like a great cosmic drawbridge.
I learned about soil,
about what makes things rot;
I learned about connections
between the living and not.
I learned about water,
and energy, and plants;
How it all exists together
in an elaborate dance.
But our own lives as humans
affect all of this too.
So I also learned consciousness—
understanding what I do.
What can I give this system?
And what things do I take?
What kind of impacts
Do my actions make?
The more I see of this world,
the more in wonder I am.
So,
that others may see it tomorrow,
I try to understand.
Sara C Swenson is a recent graduate from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities with a B.S. in Environmental Sciences, Policy, and Management (concentrated in Environmental Education and Communication) and a minor in Spanish. She has studied biology and conservation in the Galápagos Islands and the effects of tourism on coral reef ecosystems in Belize, is well-versed in Minnesota’s Environmental Review process, and has a longstanding interest in environmental policy and communication.
