Twenty-one year old writer, blogger and educator Jordan Sanchez has helped launch the Generation Restoration movement with her inspiring poem Reimagine. Recreate. Restore. in 2021. This year, she stood on some of the biggest stages at the 78th UN General Assembly and related events.
Read or listen to her reflection on our relationship with nature, embodied through the Hudson river, below.
The Hudson flows both ways;
It’s the first thing I learned in elementary school.
Through song,
We praised the River as a gift.
The God of all things good
Like life and connection.
So when the water rushes
From the Adirondacks,
Through the crevices of raised earth,
Down through the city,
And between my neighbors’ homes,
I’m forced to remember
There is only this one thing
Threading us together,
Like fingers intertwined.
Hand-in-hand,
My sister and my brother
And me
Explored the land behind my home.
Vast and green,
Ever-expanding like the universe
We breathe.
We crawled under branches,
And jumped over creeks,
And like pirates,
We laid claim to all the land
The eye could see.
The possibilities were endless
And free
But always green.
To explore the Earth is
Your birthright.
But to pillage it is not.
This planet is no puppet;
She listens and she speaks.
Her words are the crackling embers
And her screams
Are floods in the streets.
Her smiles are the food we eat
And the clean air we breathe.
The Earth guides us through
Our lifetimes,
Providing both the backdrop
And foreground
Of the stories we live.
So as directors,
It becomes our responsibility to care
For the actors at stake;
The neighbors we see,
Like the butterflies and honey bees;
And the ones that live below,
Supporting the play
In ways we can never truly replicate.
We’re in the final act,
And it’s time for action
To take center stage
With shuffled scripts,
With jumbled props,
But the curtains will be drawn,
Ready or not.
This story is a balanced ballad of back and forth,
Just like the River that runs,
The one to which I have sung.
Written in September 2023 for the High Impact Initiative: Nature Driving Economic Transformation by UNEP, a panel taking place during UN SDG Action Weekend.
About the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration: The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, led by the United Nations Environment Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and its partners, covers terrestrial as well as coastal and marine ecosystems. As a global call to action, it will draw together political support, scientific research and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration. Find out how you can contribute to the UN Decade. Follow #GenerationRestoration.