As I clutched at my handbag, trying not to think about the size of the aircraft I was in, and the length of the drop I would take if it failed to work properly on the flight, I glanced out of my small window, trying to recall what it felt like, just minutes before, to have my feet firmly rooted to the ground. I never got far enough to think about it. Out that window, that I had glanced through so casually, I saw the most amazing sight of my lifetime. There to my left was a splendid blue-green ocean. I could see the reef just off the shoreline where my brother liked to dive. Off to my right was the most majestic display of green and amber patchwork, spreading over the ground and up into the hills. The scene was so brilliant I felt as though I would never breath again. I wished for that flight to go on forever.

As our journey continued we flew away from the coast area, thus losing sight of that great liquid expanse. But in it’s place was something far better. The plane maneuvered into the valleys and peaks of the mountains that make up the inland areas of the country I was in. We flew low, in our little Cessna, but often the height of the mountain forced us upwards, and as the mountains gathered height so did we. And then we broke through the clouds. Suddenly we were up amongst those massive fluffy-white foamy peaks. I look around me and saw such pure, beautiful, cleanliness that simply astounded me.

Eventually we made our way back to the ground. All fear that I had felt at take-off was forever gone. I had felt the un-compromised joy of seeing the earth in such a naked, real, and unalterably beautiful way that can simply not be expressed with words.

As I later thought about what I had seen, I became sad. This land, here, on this little island in the South Pacific, it was beautiful, untouched, untouchable. The ocean was pure, a deep and clear blue, the ground was green, a sparkling emerald green, only interrupted by patches of farmland, a lighter, browner shade. The clouds were white, a true, pure, white friendliness and the sky above them was bright with the sun and blue from the ocean. But this land was, is, and hopefully will not remain, one of a kind. There are very few places of coastal waters that remain so clean, green lands that remain so fertile, and clouds that remain to truly white, from pure air and water. Instead, our skies are filled with pollution. Our lands are shorn of all their vegetation to make way for buildings and developments. And our oceans are relieved of their beauty as we take what we wish from them, and only return refuse to their deeps.

I wish the happiness of such a landscape as I saw be open to everyone. I wish the clean purity of that world, which seems so far removed from my own American homeland, would become what we expect in our environment. I wish we would find ways, be innovative, and stop ruining the world we live in. I wish your breath would be taken away when you look into the clear blue sky. I wish your mind would be spun off into amazement when you look down over mountains that are still filled with trees and streams and wildlife. I wish you could have seen what I saw that day, and want to change the world as I do. But all I can do, all I can hope for, is that you will read these words, and go and find the truth for yourself.