This was the view from the inside looking outward, last evening. My daughter and I were taken aback, glued to the haze and hue of the sun.

We are in the middle of an unknown length of air-quality risk in Pennsylvania due to wildfires in Canada.

If you hang around my platform or know me well, I have an inseparable relationship with nature. At times, it catches my own spouse off guard. Often, it confounds me. But usually it adds lightness to my being.

My relationship to nature oscillates between awe, guilt, interconnection, and inspiration.

Today, I slipped back outside, walking with my daughter to the bus stop.

“I can taste the smoke,” she said.

With her prompt, while I didn’t taste anything, the smell was palpable. The carriage of smoke from thousands of miles north, passing – literally – through us.

The journalism reports cannot specify when hardest hit regions like Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia will see reprieve in air quality.

I wonder what the risks are – for summer plans, for my daughter’s someday daughters, and my fellow species fighting for survival during these ever-tumultuous times.

Until then, I look outside my window and wonder: how did we get here? And when will we come together to realize, our future depends upon a mindful way of life – simpler, slower, and showing up for what matters most (with compassion for all living things).

Smoke, like wetness, like love, is carried and circulated endlessly (if we acknowledge it). Energy never dies. It is up to us, how we face this radical interconnection.

You, my next gen, are not alone – we are all in this together.