Making a difference!

Our journey over the past year has been a fun one.  We have really been able to develop a relationship in our family that I never dreamed possible.  It has really brought us close together.  Honestly, it is unique waking up every day with a mission to clean the beaches.  If you would have told me a year ago that Oliver would wake up every morning and the first words out of his mouth are, "What beach are we going to clean today", I would have laughed.  Funny how things develop.  Our daily walks have turned from finding something fun to do with the family to having something fun to do with the family.  Before we were just tourists, now we have a job with purpose. 

Oliver loves going on our adventures, as we call them.  His favorite is exploring new places. He has developed a routine for discovering a new beach.  He always assesses the litter problem, then fixes the problem by cleaning up what he can find.  Oliver then really enjoys spending a few hours on the freshly sparkled clean beach playing with his baby sister.  It really has opened his mind up to believe that he can fix problems with a little elbow grease.  Talk about a sense of empowerment for a five-year-old!  

It is crazy to think, but Oliver truly loves cleaning the beach.  To be honest, I am not quite sure if it is because he truly understands the destruction plastic pollution causes to the marine environment and our planet, or that he loves spending time with his father.  It is kinda hard for me to grasp what a five-year-old mind is really thinking, so I would have to say it is a combination of both.  We are really interested to see where this journey takes us and see how he turns out.  Perhaps we are raising an environmentalist that will change the world one day.  I sure know his ideas thus far have taken us directly to where we currently stand.  Sometimes it takes a kid’s fresh innocent perspective to open the adults’ eyes.  We just have to be receptive to what they say!  Making a difference starts with me.  Oliver is a tiny little environmentalist and he is making an impact.