I thought long and hard about how I could write about my experience at Blogher that would be of interest. I learned many valuable tips about blogs deep dark technical side but more importantly I was inspired. While at a screening of a powerful movie “Toxic Baby” Dominque Browning of Mom’s Clean Air Force said “We cannot look back on this time and have our kids ask us: ‘what were you doing?'”
I have also had this thought in the back of my mind even before I had you two: will history look back on us say what the heck was wrong with these people! It hit home for me more when you were born A. There are times in history when horrible things happened and I was always fascinated with the question what was everyone else doing? How could people let this happen?
I had the amazing opportunity to meet in person people I knew virtually before and met people for the first time who are working to make sure that when we look back historically at this time there were people working to make a difference.
As a mother, I can think of no greater disappointment than for you two to look back at me and say I failed to do the right thing at the right time. I do not want you to think I did not do what I could to make our home and our planet a place that everyone can live in for generations to come.
I had the great pleasure of meeting my fellow warriors on this green path who are all doing amazing work in different but all important ways to help save this planet but more importantly our home. Beth Terry, author of My Plastic Free Life was amazing and I am so happy I was able to get a signed copy of her (plastic free) book. Katy from Non-Toxic-Kids, Lori from Groovy Green Livin, Brenna from Almost All The Truth, Harriet the Climate Mama, Michaela the Mindful Momma, and Anna from Green Talk were all amazing experienced environmentalists. I also got spend time with Paige the author of Spit That Out which is another book on my virtual bookshelf!
In addition, to these amazing personal interactions I was inspired by Barack Obama, the President of the United States who addressed our group via video conference (or Skype). Did he talk about the environment… nope (check my other blog for my thoughts about that). But the fact that President thought that the group of people I was sitting with was an influential group I realized I was in the right place and doing the right thing for my children to not be disappointed in me.
Successful mothers like Katie Couric, Martha Stewart, Christy Turlington-Burns, Soledad O’Brien, and Malaak Compton-Rock all spoke at the conference about how they are working to make a difference. They all talked about their inspirations, what makes them work so hard and their challenges. Each one of them had a humility and humor about what they do and I found that to be just as inspiring as the work they do.
So while I think I came home with some more knowledge about SEO, keywords and tweeting. More importantly, I came home with a renewed excitement for what I have been doing for the environment for so long which honestly I was starting to wonder if this was the best platform for me. After meeting this group I know I am in the right place to make my the two of you proud and for your children to say some day “My grandma and her friends did not sit by and let this happen.”
Top picture: Back row (left to right) @almosttruth, @mindfulmomma, @groovygreenlivi, Front rown (left to right) @non_toxic_kids, @climatemomma, @greenforu. Picture courtesy of www.groovygreenlivin.com Thanks Lori for carrying around your camera all weekend. The other pictures are mine from my iPhone, I thought they would be better.
What I Want My Kids To Know 