Perhaps ecological and cultural restoration efforts are never about “going back”—which is an aspiration made ever more unattainable by the pace of climate change anyway.
Instead they are about replenishing degraded habitats and depleted good will; about repairing broken relationships; and about rekindling hope and wonder.
We may engage in restoration with a wistful look back over our shoulder, but that backward glance only hopes us triangulate a trajectory toward for the future that is also cognizant of the palpable needs of the poor and imperiled in the present.
“Re” as a preface need not mean “to do again like you once did!” It means that we cycle around to gain the momentum and get on the tack to take a leap into the unknown.
Brother Coyote, OEF
