Never forget that you are one of a kind. Never forget that if there weren't any need for you in all your uniqueness to be on this earth, you wouldn't be here in the first place. And never forget, no matter how overwhelming life's challenges and problems seem to be, that one person can make a difference in the world. In fact, it is always because of one person that all the changes that matter in the world come about. So be that one person.
~ R. Buckminster Fuller
White Lotus Flower - photo by Pixel B, bigstockphoto.com
What is one thing you can do today to ease the pain of someone else? Make it very small, very simple. Do it today.
~ Diane Mariechild
Beautiful Tree, Pacific Grove, CA - photo by Jen Silacci
When the world of humans is too much, let the more-than-human world cradle you. The old ones knew this truth—our grandmothers who sang to the seeds, our grandfathers who knelt in the dirt, our ancestors who listened to the whispers of the wind and the silence of the stones.
~ Angell Deer
Cave Behind Rifle Falls, Colorado - photo by Kris Wiktor, bigstockphoto.com
The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members, a heart of grace, and a soul generated by love.
~ Coretta Scott King
Sunrise in Monument Valley - photo by Melissa Kopka, bigstockphoto.com
We can never underestimate this truth: No matter who you are, the biggest thing you do in any day is most often going to be a small act of kindness, decency, or love.
~ Cory Booker
Beautiful Lotus - photo by Peggy Braun
The obvious choice, then, is to extend our notions of self-interest. For example, it would not occur to me to plead with you, “Don’t saw off your leg. That would be an act of violence.” It wouldn’t occur to me (or to you) because your leg is part of your body. Well, so are the trees in the Amazon rain basin. They are our external lungs. We are beginning to realize that the world is our body.
~ Joanna Macy
Amazon Jungle - photo by pxhidalgo, bigstockphoto.com
Truth be told, the entire world is conscious. The whole Universe is made of consciousness or “God-stuff”, even supposedly inanimate objects like rocks. As more and more people break the shackles of the false selves and realize their true natures, interspecies communication, including both animal communication and plant communication, will become more and more common.
~ Makia Freeman
Red Deer Stag and Foggy Forest - photo by Veneratio, bigstockphoto.com
Rivers do not drink their own water, trees do not eat their own fruit, the sun does not shine on itself and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to help each other. No matter how difficult it is…Life is good when you are happy; but much better when others are happy because of you.
~ Pope Francis
Mountain River - photo by Ale-ks, bigstockphoto.com
Our goal is that everyone has enough. Not more. Not all. But enough, enough for living beings to share, enough for life to thrive. Spirit has given us an Earth where doing that is more than possible. All we need to do is recover from our addiction to privilege. Simple and sustainable: the path forward is broad and inclusive. Let us walk it together.
~ Steven Charleston
Grand Teton National Park - photo by Terra Tirapelli
The earth is a living thing. Mountains speak, trees sing, lakes can think, pebbles have a soul, rocks have power.
~ Henry Crow Dog
Sunrise, Hunts Mesa, Monument Valley, AZ - photo by aisha, bigstockphoto.com
Yes, a person can accept your apology and forgive you for what you’ve said, but they will never forget how you made them feel at that very moment. Words can stick in a person’s mind, heart, and spirit long after the words have been spoken. Don’t be in denial; words have GREAT power. Be wise when you speak!
~ Stephanie Lahart
European Barberry Berberis Vulgaris Flowers - photo by ArgenLant, bigstockphoto.com
Look around you. This very breath you take isn't yours alone, it's a shared symphony with the trees, the wind, the creatures unseen. The cosmos isn't a collection of separate parts, it's a cosmic play unfolding on a single stage. The trick isn't to get lost in the multitude of roles, but to glimpse the oneness of the script. When that happens, the chattering mind surrenders. It recognizes it's not a separate player, but a note in the grand composition. Then, the dance of existence becomes your own, infused with a sense of belonging vaster than you ever imagined.
~ Deon Emmons
Mature Linden Tree, Estonia - photo by Artenex, bigstockphoto.com
There is a kindness that dwells deep down in things; it presides everywhere, often in the places we least expect. The world can be harsh and negative, but if we remain generous and patient, kindness inevitably reveals itself. Something deep in the human soul seems to depend on the presence of kindness; something instinctive in us expects it, and once we sense it we are able to trust and open ourselves.
~ John O’Donohue
Flowers from Arenal Volcano Area, Costa Rica - photo by Piter99, bigstockphoto.com
The whole of planet earth is a sacred site.
All people are the chosen people,
and the purpose of our lives is a spiritual one.
May we care for each other, and the earth,
for everything relates to everything else.
Feeling this oneness, may we radiate the light
of love and kindness that all may live in unity
and peace.
~ Radha Sahar
Icelandic Sunset - photo by Ragnhilur Jonsdottir
Every breath is a sacrament, an affirmation of our connection with all other living beings, a renewal of our link with our ancestors and a contribution to the generations yet to come. Our breath is a part of life’s breath …
~ David Suzuki
Sunset, Makena Beach, Hawaii - photo by Indira Darst
We cannot assume the sacredness nor spiritual livingness of the earth or accept it as a new ideology or as a sentimentally pleasing idea…We must allow it to shape us, as great spiritual ideas have always shaped those who entertain them…It is an invitation to initiation, to the death of what we have been and the birth of something new.
~ David Spangler
Orchid and Zen Stones - photo by svf74, bigstockphoto.com
Modern peoples...have mainly forgotten that we live in relationship as brothers and sisters with all the beings and forces of the natural world. Our scientific redefinitions of the "unseen" as the "unreal" have caused us to forget that we are all luminous strands in a giant web of belonging.
~ don Oscar Miro-Quesada
Idaho Falls - photo by Jen Silacci
Gratitude begins in our hearts and then dovetails into behavior. It almost always makes you willing to be of service, which is where the joy resides…When you are aware of all that has been given you, in your lifetime and in the past few days, it is hard not to be humbled, and pleased to give back.
~ Anne LaMott
Bow Fiddle Rock at Sunrise, Scotland - photo by stroop, bigstockphoto.com
As the youngest species on the planet, it behooves us to remember that there is a great deal we still have to learn. May we grow into a recognition of our youth as a species and allow ourselves to learn from the many species who are our elders. May we be open to learning how best to survive, thrive, and collaborate, drawing from the wisdom accrued by our earth-kin elders.
~ Nancy J. Napier
Cup Fungi Rainforest, Southeast Asia - photo by IamTK, bigstockphoto.com
Compassion increases in effectiveness as we mature in the core qualities of the heart, such as unconditional love, allowance, acceptance and an unattached desire for the highest outcome for all concerned.
~ Doc Childre
Lotus Flower - photo by pakpoom17, bigstockphoto.com
We have become an impatient species, too busy to let nature replenish itself and too puffed up with our own sense of importance to acknowledge our own dependence on its generosity.
~ David Suzuki
Foggy Forest - photo by stock_king, bigstockphoto.com
Earth is not a platform for human life. It’s a living being. We’re not on it but part of it. Its health is our health.
~ Thomas Moore
Earth - photo from NASA
The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence. To understand the true nature of the universe, one must think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.
~ Nikola Tesla
Iceland Auroras - photos by Ragnhildur Jonsdottir
Ultimately, work on the self is inseparable from work in the world. Each mirrors the other; each is a vehicle for the other. When we change ourselves, our values and actions change, as well.
~ Charles Eisenstein
Lotus Blossom - photo by Ange DiBenedetto
Animists are people who recognise that the world is full of persons, only some of whom are human, and that life is always lived in relationship with others.
~ Graham Harvey
African Bush Elephant, Kruger National Park, South Africa - photo by Paco Como, bigstockphoto.com
Your unity and connection with LIFE and the Universe is a deep spiritual and scientific truth. Reality exists as a beautiful mosaic of interconnection and inter-being. Everything exists in circles of creative interdependence, mutual attraction and sharing.
~ Christopher Chase
Tiger Cave Temple, Krabi Province, Thailand - photo by Olena Tur, bigstockphoto.com
In a world of Oneness, every life form we encounter on this planet is a relation of ours, our earth-kin. Notice what changes or arises in your awareness if you were to move through your daily activities with this recognition.
~ Nancy J. Napier
Sheep in Monument Valley at Sunset - photo by dzain, bigstockphoto.com
And though we seem to be sleeping, there is an inner wakefulness that directs the dream, and that will eventually startle us back to the truth of who we are.
~ Rumi
Giant Sequoia, Sequoia National Park, CA - photo by lucky-photographer, bigstockphoto.com
If we are to help heal the world we need to remember that it is a sacred place. Our actions need to be positive statements, reminders that even in the worst times there is a world worth struggling for.
~ Ram Dass
Mount Bromo and Batok Volcanoes, East Java, Indonesia - photo by MazurTravel, bigstockphoto.com
Not just beautiful, though—the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they're watching me.
~ Haruki Murakami
Milky Way, Granitoe, Ukraine - photo by denbelitsky, bigstockphoto.com
Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer
Grand Canyon and Colorado River - photo by diro, bigstockphoto.com
The key takeaway [of quantum mechanics]…is that we are all part of one unified field interacting and co-existing with one another…Kami (spirit) and people are not separate; they exist within the same world and share its interrelated complexity.
~ Akiko Ogawa
Malenge Lagoon, Indonesia - photo by Fabio Lamanna, bigstockphotocoom
The power of mass intention may ultimately be the force that shifts the tide toward repair and renewal of the planet.
~ Lynne McTaggart
Sunrise over Matheson Lake, New Zealand - photo by pranodhm, bigstockphoto.com
In the universe there are things that are known and things that are unknown, and in between there are doors.
~ William Blake
Jungles of northern Thailand - photo by quickshooting, bigstockphoto.com
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.
~ Arundhati Roy
Colorful Sunset at Twilight - photo by jimbophotoart, bigstockphoto.com
I am only one
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not to refuse to do the something
that I can do.
~ Edward Everett Hale
Nature's Magic, Aurora in Iceland - photo by stroop, bigstockphoto.com
What if our religion was each other? If our practice was our life? What if the temple was the Earth? If forests were our church? If holy water - the rivers, lakes, and oceans? What if meditation was our relationships? If the Teacher was life? If wisdom was knowledge? If love was the center of our being.
~ Ganga White
Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, Carmel, CA - photo by Jen Silacci
I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being.
~ Hafiz
Sunrise, Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, UT - photo by prochasson, bigstockphoto.com
Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.
~ Hermann Hesse
Tree in Snow - photo by jaapbleijenberg, bigstockphoto.com
When anything good happens to you in your day, give thanks. It doesn't matter how small it is, say thank you. When you get the perfect parking space, hear your favorite song on the radio, approach a light that turns green, or find an empty seat on the bus or train, say thank you. These are all good things that you are receiving from life.
~ Rhonda Byrne
Rising Son in Yosemite National Park - photo by Kris Wiktor, bigstockphoto.com
As long as I’m alive, I will continue to try to understand more because the work of the heart is never done.
~ Muhammad Ali
White Lily - photo by pavel_klimenko, bigstockphoto.com
We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it. We must learn to cooperate in its processes, and to yield to its limits.
But even more important, we must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe.
~ Wendell Berry
Meteora Valley at Sunset, Greece - photo by Lhboucault, bigstockphoto.com
How could people not see such beings as ancestors, as holders of secrets from the great beyond?
~ Jori Lewis
Mariposa Grove, Yosemite - photo by cphoto, bigstockphoto.com
We are walking ecosystems with more non-human than human cells in and on the body we call self. Interbeing is not a concept, it describes the relational matrix of health in which we take our being and live our lives while co-creating the very process we emerged from.
~Daniel Christian Wahl
Keystone, CO - photo by Jen Silacci
May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my life contribute in some way to that happiness and freedom for all.
~ Sanskrit Prayer for Peace
Victoria Lily - photo by Whiskybottle, bigstockphoto.com
In each of us there is a spark that can reverse the trends of violence and depression spiraling within us and in the world around us. By setting in motion the spiral of gratefulness we begin the journey toward peace and joy.
~ Br. David Steindl-Rast
Sunset - photo by Carol Napier
At every moment, we always have a choice, even if it feels as if we don’t. Sometimes that choice may simply be to think a more positive thought.
~ Tina Turner
Ocean Sunrise - photo by Katharina 13, bigstockphoto.com
When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless..
~ Pema Chödrön
Lotus Blossom - photo by kenny001, bigstockphoto.com
In the human spirit, as in the universe, nothing is higher or lower; everything has equal rights to a common center which manifests its hidden existence precisely through this harmonic relationship between every part and itself.
~ Goethe
Canadian Otter - photo by jgotwald, bigstockphoto.com
If we can have a holistic view of soil, soul and society, if we can understand the interdependence of all living beings, and understand that all living creatures—from trees to worms to humans—depend on each other, then we can live in harmony with ourselves, with other people and with nature.
~ Satish Kumar
Sunset, Rainforest Jungle - photo by Mihailo K, bigstockphoto.com
Since it is impossible to be outside the reach of collective consciousness, we are faced with a constant opportunity to make a difference by cleaning up our small contribution to the human morphic field. No one else can do this for us; each of us must choose the quality of thought, feeling, and being we want to bring into our individual lives and, thereby, into the reach of everyone else.
~ Nancy Napier
Icelandic Sunset - photo by Ragnhildur Jonsdottir
Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.
~ Mary Oliver
Snowy Woodland, Carpathian National Park, Ukraine - photo by Leonid Tit, bigstockphoto.com
The most radical thing any of us can do at this time is to be fully present to what is happening in the world.
~ Joanna Macy
Sunset Sky - photo by mexitographer, bigstockphoto.com
Nothing is more important than empathy for another human being's suffering. Not a career. Not wealth. Not intelligence. Certainly not status.
We have to feel for one another if we're going to survive with dignity.
~ Audrey Hepburn
Lavendar Rose - photo by Kholywood, bigstockphoto.com
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
~ Edward Everett Hale
Sunrise, Lake Minnewanka, Banff National Park,l Canada - photo by Songquan Deng, bigstockphoto.com
New research suggests a belief in oneness has broad implications for psychological functioning and compassion for those who are outside of our immediate circle.
~ Scott Barry Kaufman
Lotus Blossom - photo by Ange DiBenedetto
We are not here on Earth to be alone, but to be a part of a living community, a web of life in which all is sacred. Like the cells of our body, all of life is in constant communication, as science is just beginning to understand. No bird sings in isolation, no bud breaks open alone. And the most central note that is present in life is its sacred nature, something we need to each rediscover and honor anew.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Megalithic Stone Circle, Isle of Lewis and Harris, Scotland - photo by AnnekaS, bigstockphoto.com
Be a kind voice in this broken-hearted world. Give grace, and be ready to receive it. Listen so well that the person you’re with can rest in your loving attention for a moment. Be a light. Be a light. Be a light.
~ Narea Hoffman
Ocean Landscape at Sunset - photo by Yanika, bigstockphoto,com
Reality is woven from strange, “holistic” threads that aren’t located precisely in space or time. Tug on a dangling loose end from this fabric of reality, and the whole cloth twitches, instantly, throughout all space and time...The bottom line is that physical reality is connected in ways we’re just beginning to understand…When you drill down into the core of even the most solid-looking material, separateness dissolves.
~ Dean Radin
Desert Beneath the Milky Way - photo by raphoto, bigstockphoto.com
we aren't here to
turn our lives into
a bank vault
we are here to be
a gateless park
oh, my love,
I wasted so many
years before I learned
that
we are not what we take
from this world
we are defined by what we
give back to it
~ john roedel
Orchid Blossoms - photo by akvafoto, bigstockphoto.com
It appears consciousness can play a very important role in changing our planet. Just having these thoughts alone could contribute to the massive shift in consciousness that’s occurring. Find your inner peace, be peace, be love, acting and living your life from such a place plays a very important role in changing the world.
~ Arjun Walia
Winter Landscape with Morning Sun - photo by salman2, bigstockphoto.com
All we want, whether we are honeybees, salmon, trash-collecting ants, ponderosa pines, coyotes, human beings, or stars, is to love and be loved, to be accepted, cherished, and celebrated simply for being who we are. Is that so very difficult?
~ Derrick Jensen
Timber Wolves - photo by Josef Pittner, bigstockphoto.com
But I'll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything.
~ Alan Watts
Walking Bridge, Rainforest - photo by Jack-sooksan, bigstockphoto.com
If we are to become partners with the Earth, living our shared journey, we have to once again speak the same language, listen with our senses attuned not just to the physical world but also to its inner dimension.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Elf Garden, July 2013 - photo by Ragnhildur Jonsdottir
Whenever you have a choice between being right or being kind, be kind. No exceptions. Don’t confuse kindness for weakness.
~ Kevin Kelly
Lotus Flowers - photo by Phuong D. Nguyen, bigstockphoto.com
Creation is ongoing. The world begins anew each day. This is the miracle that makes not a sound, but which changes everything, if we can be quiet enough to feel it happen. When we can participate in this, we begin anew each day.
~ Mark Nepo
Grand Canyon Sunrise - photo by maverick888, bigstockphoto.com
Continue.
Be loving and be strong.
Be fierce and be kind.
And don't give in and don't give up.
~ Maya Angelou
Yosemite National Park - photo by Pung Pung, bigstockphoto.com
The entire range of living matter on Earth from whales to viruses and from oaks to algae could be regarded as constituting a single living entity capable of maintaining the Earth's atmosphere to suit its overall needs and endowed with faculties and powers far beyond those of its constituent parts.
~ James Lovelock
Jaguar in Belize Jungle - photo by milosk50, bigstockphoto.com
For myself, solitude is rather like a folded-up forest that I carry with me everywhere and unfurl around myself when I have need.
~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Coast Redwoods from Inside Tree - bigstockphoto.com
For someone visiting earth for the first time, the real treasures here would all be free. The smell of a sunlit prairie, the taste of a cold cup of spring water, the crunch of trackless snow underfoot, these are some of the earth's supreme treasures. On intergalactic maps, if there are such things, the place where we live must surely be designated as a magical garden in space, a place of astounding beauty.
~ Steve Van Matre
Mountain River and Snow - photo by denbelitsky, bigstockphoto.com
Given the distant common ancestry between octopuses and humans, conscious octopuses would mean that consciousness has evolved on earth twice. Godfrey-Smith believes it’s plausible that there are more than two branches of evolution where consciousness independently developed…Based on the current evidence, it seems that consciousness is not particularly unusual at all, but a fairly routine development in nature.
~ Olivia Goldhill
Octopus - photo by Colorshadow, bigstockphoto.com
Wealth among traditional people is measured by having enough to give away.
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
Sunrise, Mesa Arch, UT - photo by vent du sud, bigstockphoto.com
I think it's a deep consolation to know that spiders dream, that monkeys tease predators, that dolphins have accents, that lions can be scared silly by a lone mongoose, that otters hold hands, and ants bury their dead. That there isn't their life and our life. Nor your life and my life.
That it's just one teetering and endless thread and all of us, all of us, are entangled with it as deep as entanglement goes.
~ Kate Forster
Male White Lion - photo by EnjoyLife, bigstockphoto.com
We bless this year for all we learned,
For all we loved and lost
And for the quiet way it brought us
Nearer to our invisible destination.
~ John O'Donohue
Yellow Calla Lily Flowers - photo by Seregraff, bigstockphoto.com
If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
Sequoia National Park - photo by travelview, bigstockphoto.com
Awareness may not diminish the enormity of our pain in all circumstances. It does provide a bigger basket for tenderly holding and intimately holding our suffering in any and all circumstances, and that, in turns out, is transformative—and healing.
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
Invitation to Awareness - photo by scorpp, bigstockphoto.com
The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love—whether we call it friendship or family or romance—is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light. Gentle work. Steadfast work. Life-saving work in those moments when life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our view, but there is still a clear-eyed loving person to beam it back. In our best moments, we are that person for another.
~ James Baldwin
Sunrise, Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, UT - photo by Bill45, bigstockphoto.com
Water has a memory and carries within it our thoughts and prayers. As you yourself are water, no matter where you are, your prayers will be carried to the rest of the world.
~ Masaru Emoto
Niagara Falls, USA - photo by lucky-photographer, bigstockphoto.com
What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses.
~ Bruce Lipton
Limestone Cave, Naracoorte Caves National Park, Australia - photo by ymgerman, bigstockphoto.com
For our indigenous partners in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador, they don't just live in the forest—they are the forest. They commune with Arutam, the spirit of the forest, to receive its guiding wisdom. May the forest be with us all.
~ Pachamama Alliance
Amazon Jungle - photo by pxhidalgo, bigstockphoto.com
I have always thought of all creatures - all organisms, really - as relations. Whether wandering alone in deep wilderness or just leaning against a tree growing beside an urban sidewalk, I have had no difficulty feeling, as if in dreamtime, the roots of our relatedness - ecologically, yes, but also with an overlay of the sacred, the holy.
~ Lyanda Lynn Haupt
Bald Eagle in Rocky Mountain HIgh Country - photo by Designwest, bigstockphoto.com
Our ability to dream of possibilities – to vision and bring forth what we are here to do for the greater good – should not be underestimated. It is how we cooperate with the Infinite.
~ Ellen Grace O’Brian
Sunset, Asilomar Beach, Pacific Grove, CA - photo by Jen Silacci
I am inviting you to go deeper, to learn and to practice so that you become someone who has a great capacity for being solid, calm, and without fear, because our society needs people who have these qualities, and your children, our children, need people like you, in order to go on, in order to become solid, and calm, and without fear.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Lotus Blossoms - photo by Ange DiBenedetto
The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.
~ Nikola Tesla
Aurora over Swedish Lake - photo by contas, bigstockphoto.com
Magical places are always beautiful and deserve to be contemplated. Always stay on the bridge between the invisible and the visible.
~ Paulo Coelho
LLanos de Cortez Waterfall, Costa Rica - photo by billberryphotography, bigstockphoto.com
So at the end of this day, we give thanks for being betrothed to the unknown.
~ John O'Donohue
Giant Sequoia Trees, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park - photo by Pung Pung, bigstockphoto.com
This is what I have to say to you…
Live as if the earth exhales blessings in your direction,
As if the trees speak their deepest secrets
In your ear,
As if bird songs can lift you outside your
Ordinary state of mind and bring you into truth.
Be the creative juice flowing through the universe.
Be compassion in action and wholeness in motion.
Be silence and stillness, the ocean of love so
Palpable that not one cell of you disputes the truth
That you are love.
Be so open to your destiny that it
Unfurls like a banner in the sky, a sign saying,
“Live with gratitude, generosity, and grace.”
~ Danna Faulds
El Capitan, Yosemite National Park - photo by jeffbanke, bigstockphoto.com
All human beings are descendants of tribal people who were spiritually alive, intimately in love with the natural world, children of Mother Earth.
When we were tribal people, we knew who we were, we knew where we were, and we knew our purpose.
This sacred perception of reality remains alive and well in our genetic memory. We carry it inside of us, usually in a dusty box in the mind’s attic, but it is accessible.
~ John Trudell
Morning, Garden of the Gods, Colorado - photo by Michael Blanchard, bigstockphoto.com
Fungi are their own kingdom of life — as animals and plants are. They include microscopic yeasts and big mushrooms, some of them psychedelic. They are in bread. They are in medicine. They clean up oil spills. Only a small fraction of fungi species have been identified.
Fungi stitch things together.
Some kinds stitch life and death together, literally. They decompose dead things — leaves, twigs, giant trunks of ancient trees — and turn them into soil so more trees and twigs and leaves can grow. I came to think of them as agents of reincarnation.
~ Somini Sengupta
Orange and Gold Lichen on Tree Trunk - photo by wishfaery, bigstockphoto.com
The Koyukon Indians of north central Alaska live “in a world that watches, in a forest of eyes.” They believe wherever we are, we are never truly alone because the surroundings, no matter how remote, are aware of our presence and must be treated with respect.
~ Duane Elgin
Silver Bay, Sitka, Alaska - photo by heikehuettenkofer, bigstockphoto.com
The idea of the universe as an interconnected whole is not new; for millennia it's been one of the core assumptions of Eastern philosophies. What is new is that Western science is slowly beginning to realize that some elements of that ancient lore might be correct.
~ Dean Radin
Tree, Milky Way, and Starry Sky - photo by denbelitsky, bigstockphoto.com
Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.
~Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Light - Brilliant Sunset - photo by underworld1, bigstockphoto.com
This is a work of fiction. All the characters in it, human and otherwise, are imaginary, excepting only certain of the fairy folk, whom it might be unwise to offend by casting doubts on their existence. Or lack thereof.
~ Neil Gaiman
Elf Garden, Iceland - photo by Ragnhildur Jonsdottir
It is good to know that this industrial paradigm – economy over ecology – is only a couple of hundred years old. Our indigenous brothers and sisters have lived in harmony with nature for thousands and thousands of years. They knew – and know – that nature is not an economic means. Nature is not a resource for the economy. Nature is a source of life. Our planet is a sacred source of life; a living organism that is the common home for us and all the other living species. Economy is a subset of ecology.
~ Satish Kumar
Californian Redwood Forest, Victoria, Australia - photo by FiledIMAGE, bigstockphoto.com
Treat the Earth and all that dwell thereon with respect. Remain close to the Great Spirit. Show great respect for your fellow beings. Work together for the benefit of all humankind. Give assistance and kindness wherever needed. Do what you know to be right.
~ Jasper Saunkeah, Kiowa
Sunrise, Hunts Mesa, Monument Valley, AZ - photo by Bill45, bigstockphoto.com
Once upon a time, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten.
~ Terry Tempest Williams
Quetzal, Costa Rica - photo by Petr_Salinger, bigstockphoto.com
We crave that deep place within that cannot be touched by the ups and downs of life, but rather just IS – connected and whole.
~ Nipun Mehta
Sunset Storm, Iceland - photo by Ragnhildur Jonsdottir
The stillness will come. After all the noise and confusion. After the shouts and alarms. When you are away from the crowd, when you can be alone with yourself, then the stillness will come, rising up gently like a spring of fresh water, enfolding you in the peace of the deep forest, sheltered and serene, a place only you know, a place of stillness and healing.
~ Steven Charleston
Snowy Forest Landscape - photo by Yanika, bigstockphoto.com
There comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other.
~ Wangari Maathai
Beach Sunrise - photo by West Coast Scapes, bigstockphoto.com
We are always part of something, belonging to a greater wholeness. In fact, we always stand deeply connected with the entire world around us…Nothing can thrive in seclusion. We all depend on each other and we are nurtured in the web of connectedness—organically and in consciousness.
~ Soren Hauge
Bull Buffalo, Yellowstone National Park - photo by kenkistler, bigstockphoto.com