Even though I didn't realize that I was about to launch into a two-year struggle, a deep and compelling sense told me that I had to walk the path I'd chosen - or rather, the path that seemed to have chosen me.
I've always felt that as long as I was able, I was supposed to give all I've got to ensure a healthy and loving legacy for those still to come, and especially for those with no voice.
We live in a world that is full of problems, and we are the solutions to those problems.
We live in a disposable society. We throw so much away. But it doesn't come from nowhere. It comes from the planet and it comes from future generations' lives.
It became clear to me that our value as people is not in our stock portfolios and bank accounts but in the legacies we leave behind.
I live in a tree called Luna. I am trying to save her life. Believe me, this is not what I intended to do with my own.
I don't do the media because of 'Woo-woo, Julia Butterfly,' as I call it. I'm not into promoting me. I'm into talking about why I've done what I've done, why I continue to do this work and why other people should care.
I have been stubborn and getting into trouble since I was 2, but I learned how to redirect that into good causes.
Where can you look in your daily life and find ways to do it better, to be more thoughtful of the Earth, to be more thoughtful of people?
Since I became accidentally famous, it did give me access and, through that access, power that I couldn't just walk away from.
I didn't climb into that tree expecting to become a spokesperson.
I think really what needs to happen is the people of the United States need to stand up and say, 'Oil is an energy model from the past. It doesn't work for the planet, it doesn't work for the people, it never has and it never will.'
I'm a poster child for Luddites. It was a challenge for me to open myself up the tech world.
I don't endorse products, only actions and beliefs.
We live in a world that tells us not to care, to consume everything in sight. It tells us that being cool and being an individual actually means buying what everyone else is buying and doing what everyone else is doing.
For me, love is not about froufrou New Age-ism. It's about a way of living and honoring the interconnectedness of life and accepting our responsibility and our power to change the world for the better.
I've got two bikes that get me everywhere I need to go. And public transportation.
I don't really watch movies. I don't own a TV.
I'm so drastically independent; I don't tend to flourish in relationships.
I can hold space for people who think I'm a nut job. It's cool. But I know from my own experience what I experienced. I know what I learned. I know what I saw. I know what I heard.
