I am of the family of the universe and with all of us together I do not fear being alone. I can reach out and touch a rock or a hand or dip my feet in water. Always there is some body close by, and when I speak I am answered by a plane’s roar or the bird’s whistling or the voices of others in conversation far apart from me. When I lie down to sleep, I am in the company of the dark and the stars.

Breathe to me, sheep in the meadow. Sun and moon, my father and my father’s brother, kiss me on the brow with your light. My sister, earth, holds me up to be kissed. Sun and moon, I smile at you both and spread my arms in affection and lay myself down at full length for the earth to know i love it too and I am never to be separated from it. In no way shall death part us.

~ David Ignatow

Myrtle Creek, Mt. Rainier – Photo by TAO Photography, used with permission