It is also, joyfully, a letter to our future.
I have imagined sending a note like this for, oh, some 35 years. (Yikes!) It is a message about those acres above us, of course. It is also about an idea, a notion, a hope realized; it is about a wonderful, and once virtually impossible-to-contemplate dream.
Because it is done. It is done. Martha, her acres and her gifts now belong to each of us. Martha is open to us all…and forever.
We are all officially authorized to hoot, holler, hike, and hug each other, our kids and theirs!
There are a few other thoughts that I’d like to share. Looking back through those 35 years there are scores of people who have pitched in; who have shared and passionately believed in our vision; who have, like us, imagined that land remaining in its natural state, open and welcoming to feet of all sizes (and to hooves and winged creatures and rare plants and frogs!)
We are deeply indebted to each of you who have helped in any way that you could over all of these years.
You remind us, importantly, what a group of like-minded people can accomplish. You see, together this team has forever saved the land for public use and enjoyment - very soon the barbed wire will come down, "private property" signs will disappear, invasive species will be cleared to provide nourishment to threatened plants, and the land will be forever stewarded for generations of people and wildlife.
We don’t know about tomorrow’s world, but it is likely safe to say that there will be an intense need, just as there is today, to have places of calm beauty to nurture and replenish us. Can an open space put her arm around you and share her thoughts? Her sense of peace? The assurance of her very presence? We believe so. And now Martha is free to do just that... she is now a neighbor nearby, a precious space for everyone, forever.
Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts in this special moment. And thank you again for all that you have done. Most simply stated, perhaps, because of you, a mother and her son can sit on a high hill looking out over that Bay, and watch the sunset as it colors the low fog. Possibly, tonight? Definitely, forever.
Don’t you think that this calls for a celebration? We sure do. Look for details about it in this space tomorrow!
Tiburon Open Space