Celeste Helene Schantz is a poet who lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York State with her special needs son. Celeste works for the public library. Writing this essay "was cathartic, to share my love of this small, trickling, wonderful creek where I've gone for years. Lovely to celebrate that, yes, but I found myself suddenly tying in our interconnectedness as humans and our responsibilities to each other and to the planet in a wider implication," she says.