Conquering Night Terrors with Hope and Action

     Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night from a sound or temperature change and my head gets filled with stuff that I can't shake. Things that I can't do much about at 2 am. One night I woke up to silence. I'm not sure what woke me up, but the lack of sound was deafening. I had just returned from Arizona where I woke to the wonderful sounds of coyotes outside my window. The silence reminded me of the coyotes I used to hear at night at my own house before my neighbor had them trapped and killed. Thoughts of those coyotes created a hurricane in my head.  But these nighttime thoughts could be about anything. I have them when I think of the people I met in Flint who still don't have clean water. We all get these thoughts at times.

      So, how do we conquer them when they surround us in the dark of night, or whenever they hit us? I combat them with the thoughts of all the people in the world who are making a difference. The ones who give me hope that we can work together to make a change.

     That's why I wrote BACK FROM THE BRINK. I wanted to share stories of hope with readers who share the same fears I have about our environment. I wanted them to know about the people who came before us and saved whooping cranes from being hunted for hats and the people at work today who are saving California condors. Those stories are the ones that help me fall back to sleep at night. They encourage me. They give me hope that we can all make a difference.

     I am so appreciative of the Nature Generation for placing BACK FROM THE BRINK on their shortlist for the Green Earth Book Award. Thank you. I hope it helps bring hope to more readers.