Ecocentricity Blog: Tomorrow's Child

Tomorrow’s Child contains a message that resonates deeply within me as I hold my newborn son. It reminds me of how precious life truly is.

Hi friends!

So I’m out on paternity leave, and my wife and I are overjoyed by the new addition to our family! It is such an amazing blessing, as I imagine many of you know.

As a result, I hope you don’t mind if I take it easy this week on the blog post. Rather than writing something original, I’ve reproduced a poem below that was very dear to my grandfather.

It was written in the early years of Interface’s sustainability journey by Glenn Thomas, just after he heard Ray speak about his environmental epiphany. Ray would often end his speeches by reciting the poem, and you can hear him read it at this link.

Tomorrow’s Child contains a message that resonates deeply within me as I hold my newborn son. It reminds me of how precious life truly is, and that we must protect our natural world for the benefit of generations yet to come.

Tomorrow’s Child

Without a name; an unseen face
and knowing not your time nor place,
Tomorrow’s Child, though yet unborn
I met you first last Tuesday morn.

A wise friend introduced us two,
and through his shining point of view
I saw a day that you would see;
a day for you, but not for me.

Knowing you has changed my thinking
for I never had an inkling
That perhaps the things I do
might someday, somehow, threaten you.

Tomorrow’s Child, my daughter/son
I’m afraid I’ve just begun
To think of you and of your good,
though always having known I should.

Begin I will to weigh the cost
of what I squander; what is lost
If ever I forget that you
will someday come to live here too.

© Glenn C. Thomas 1996