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
Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power, and to one another, is grounded in love and compassion.
~ Brene Brown
Lotus Flowers - photo by kenny001, bigstockphoto.com
When we surrender the need to figure it all out, and cultivate the ability to let it all in, then our earth walk becomes a sacred dance of healing service on the planet. More than the world needs saving, it needs loving.
~ don Oscar Miro-Quesada
Owl in Snow-Covered Tree - photo by jaapbleijenberg, bigstockphoto.com
True wealth is not measured in money or status or power. It is measured in the legacy we leave behind for those we love and those we inspire.
~ Cesar Chavez
Sunrise Rainbow, Paine River, Patagonia, Chile - photo by Circumnavigation, bigstockphoto.com
This is perhaps one of the most important things I learned during this investigation: We see what we believe, and not just the contrary; and to change what we see, it is sometimes necessary to change what we believe.
~ Jeremy Narby
Colorful Sky and Sea - photo by Maaria Marganingsih, bigstockphoto.com
You do not belong to you. You belong to the universe. The significance of you will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume you are fulfilling your significance if you apply yourself to converting all you experience to highest advantage to others. Make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.
~ R. Buckminster Fuller
Northern Lights, Alaska - photo by JCB5754, bigstockphoto.com
Everything in nature is alive and influences your thoughts whether you know it or not.
Who’s to say the rock does not hear your thoughts? Nor the river? Or, the mountain ranges? We all belong to this living world and there is nothing that does not belong.
~ Tony Ten Fingers, Oglala Lakota
Light Beam, Antelope Canyon, AZ - photo by lorcel, bigstockphoto.com
A practice of gratitude is not about dismissing sadness, anger, fear, or confusion. Rather, it offers us the opportunity to see that we often experience multiple feelings at once; to welcome joy into the same places where we hold grief; to turn our attention to what is quietly growing and breathing day by day, which, to our possible surprise, includes ourselves.
~ Kristin Lin
Lotus Blossom - photo by Ange DiBenedetto
We live in a creative Universe that is itself a work of cosmic art. Nature is more like a flowing living symphony than a material “thing.” And everything is connected, everything is energy… Mystical traditions and individuals have been expressing this understanding for centuries. Life is sacred, life is art.
Be mindful. See the beauty that exists everywhere, the creative mystery that we are. Be aware of your presence and connection to everything.
Know that behind your social persona and cultural identity you are the child of a Creative Cosmos.
~ Christopher Chase
Deep Autumn Forest - photo by iosebi, bigstockphoto.com
We must relinquish our convenient narratives of human exceptionalism and triumphalism - those stories that centralize human agency and enthrone human interests as supremely paramount in the multiverse. And we must do this not simply because we are now regaining some awareness about the nobility of other species and life forms - and not entirely because we are ourselves now humbled by our less than spectacular origins, but mainly because these times of upheaval call on us to revisit what is implied in being human. Do we continue to insist that we are lords over all, masters of the universe - uniquely distanced from the fleshy, dirty discourses of 'nature' - ravaging plagues burning soil and earth into asphalted forms of our own making? Or do we recognize our relatedness to all things, our real dependence on the land we supposedly transcend, and that to be human is not a magisterial decree of isolation, but a chorus...a syncretic process of shared ecological participation?
~ Bayo Akomolafe
Mac Mac Waterfall, Sabie, South Africa - photo by intsys, bigstockphoto.com
The Universe is one indivisible, dynamic whole in which energy and matter are so deeply entangled it is impossible to consider them as independent elements...
What quantum physics teaches us is that everything we thought was physical is not physical.
~ Bruce H. Lipton
Alaskan Aurora Borealis - photop by Romko, bigstockphoto.com
One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it.
~ Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Sunset, Pebble Beach, CA - photo by Jen Silacci
In reality there is a single integral community of the Earth that includes all its component members whether human or other than human. In this community every being has its own role to fulfill, its own dignity, its inner spontaneity.
~ Thomas Berry
Jaguar - photo by Anolis, bigstockphoto.com
The kindest people are not born that way, they are made. They are the ones that have experienced so much at the hands of life, they are the ones who have dug themselves out of the dark, who have fought to turn every loss into a lesson. The kindest people do not just exist – they choose to soften where circumstance has tried to harden them, they choose to believe in goodness, because they have seen firsthand why compassion is so necessary. They have seen firsthand why tenderness is so important in this world.
~ Bianca Sparacino
Palo Santo Tree, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador - photo by Terra Tirapelli
I have come to trust that I am part of something so wondrous and mysterious and enormous. It’s not me who is taking care of it. My job is to become in harmony with this and let my love, my voice, my connection, my vision come out of that.
~ Jack Kornfield
Sequoia Forest - photo by volare2004, bigstockphoto.com
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
~ Harriet Tubman
Icelandic Sunset - photo by Ragnhilur Jonsdottir
As Wind carries our prayers for Earth and All Life,
may respect and love light our way.
May our hearts be filled with compassion for others and for ourselves.
May peace increase on Earth.
May it begin with me.
~ Tibetan prayer flag is 'Lung ta', meaning 'Wind Horse'
Cho La Pass, Nepal, Himalayas - photo by Zzvet, bigstockphoto.com
The power of mass intention may ultimately be the force that shifts the tide toward repair and renewal of the planet.
~ Lynne McTaggart
California Coastal Sunset - pphoto by Virrange Images, bigstockphoto.com
The world we are experiencing today is the result of our collective consciousness, and if we want a new world, each of us must take responsibility for helping create it.
~ Rosemary Fillmore
Grand Teton National Park - photo by Terra Tirapelli
Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. When there's a big disappointment, we don't know if that's the end of the story. It may just be the beginning of a great adventure. Life is like that. We don't know anything. We call something bad; we call it good. But really we just don't know.
~ Pema Chodron
Morning Light, Garden of the Gods, Colorado - photo by pilgrims49, bigstockphoto.com
We all have encounters with the sacred, we just have to cultivate the eye that can perceive them. We have to see what’s already here, interwoven with what we claim is human and mundane. We have to take inventory of the magic that conspires to love us in and through our ordinary lives.
~ Meggan Watterson
Lotus Blossom - photo by Ange DiBenedetto
There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief and unspeakable love.
~ Washington Irving
Mountain River Stream, in Tropical Rainforest - photo by Bigc Studio, bigstockphoto.com
We are all connected with the deep ecology of the universe and each of us has the ability to extend our consciousness far beyond the range of our physical senses.
~ Duane Elgin
Elf Garden, Iceland - photo by Ragnhildur Jonsdottir
All people, all living things, are part of the earth life, and so are sacred. No one of us stands higher or lower than any other…
~ From Manifesto of the Fifth Sacred Thing, Starhawk
The Beauty of the Autumn Sun Shining Through Golden Beech Trees Leaves - photo by Smileus, bigstockphoto.com
Physicists now believe that entanglement between particles exists everywhere, all the time, and have recently found shocking evidence that it affects the wider, ‘macroscopic’ world that we inhabit.
~ Dean Radin
Monterey, CA - photo by Jen Silacci
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
~ Chief Seattle
Storm Clouds, Sedona, AZ - photo by ftlaudgirl, bigstockphoto.com
We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.
~ Howard Zinn
Lotus Flower - photo by pakpoom17, bigstockphoto.com
May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.
~ John O'Donohue
Gold Autumn Forest - photo by Smileus, bigstockphoto.com
The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
~ Howard Zinn
Sunset, Pebble Beach, CA - photo by Jen Silacci
The most fundamental law is to recognize that we share the planet with other beings, and that we have a duty to care for our common home.
~ Vandana Shiva
Diablo Lake, North Cascades National Park, WA - photo by Anna Abramskaya, bigstockphoto.com
Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.
~ Maya Angelou
Lotuses - photo by Ange DiBenedetto
In the universe there are things that are known and things that are unknown, and in between there are doors.
~ William Blake
Milky Way Above Mountain Range - photo by paulista, bigstockphoto.com
Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language... It is to say, 'My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours.'
~ Desmond Tutu
Acacia Tree at Sunrise, Amboseli National Park, Kenya - photo by ajn, bigstockphoto.com
The great unspoken tragedy of the present time is that we have forgotten about the spiritual body of the earth. We have forgotten about the inner worlds. We have been censored. We live in a culture that has very, very efficiently told us that the outer physical world is all that exists. And even when we do spiritual practice and we discover our own spiritual self, there is often a blinker that stops us from then saying 'this spiritual self must be part of the whole and what is the relationship I have to the whole?' Once we make a relationship with the spiritual intelligence within creation—with the soul of the world—then we begin the groundwork, we begin the deeper healing.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Autumn Tree - photo by Ian 2010, bigstockphoto.com
When they hate, I will love. When they curse, I will bless. When they hurt, I will heal. I am a servant of the light. I am not afraid of darkness. I will carry on with my work as a steward of this Earth and of all her children. When they divide, I will unite. When they rage, I will calm. When they deny, I will affirm. I will simply be who I am: for that is what Spirit created me to be.
~ Steven Charleston
Golden Autumn Leaves - photo by dplett, bigstockphoto.com
The world is not a problem to be solved, it is a living being to which we belong. The world is part of our own self and we are a part of its suffering wholeness. Until we go to the root of our image of separateness, there can be no healing. And the deepest part of our separateness from creation, lies in our forgetfulness of its sacred nature, which is also our own sacred nature.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Lotus Blossom - photo by Ange DiBenedetto
Many indigenous peoples share the understanding that we are each endowed with a particular gift, a unique ability…It is understood that these gifts have a dual nature, though: a gift is also a responsibility. If the bird’s gift is song, then it has a responsibility to greet the day with music. It is the duty of birds to sing and the rest of us receive the song as a gift.
Asking what is our responsibility is perhaps also to ask, What is our gift? And how shall we use it?
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer
oto by mbridger, bigstockphoto.com
There was a time when the distances between our world and those we considered “imaginary” were no further than a bend in the road. Each cavern and hollow tree was a doorway to another world. Humans recognized life in all things. The streams sang and the winds whispered ancient words into the ears of whomever would listen. Every blade of grass and flower had a tale to tell…There was life and purpose in all things and there was loving interaction between the worlds.
~ Ted Andrews
Elf Garden, Iceland - photo by Ragnhildur Jonsdottir
And there, in its grand celestial dance
the sun took a step back,
the leaves lulled themselves to sleep,
and the magnificent glory that is Autumn
was awakened once again.
~ Raphael Franciscus
Autumn in Central Park - photo by Devadana Sanctuary
You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.
~ Jane Goodall
Bold Coast Trail - photo by Terésa Stern
We are all one. Only egos, beliefs, and fears separate us.
~ Nikola Tesla
Northern Lights, Alaska - photo by JCB5754, bigstockphoto.com
The Navajo teach their children that every morning when the sun comes up, it’s a brand-new sun. It’s born each morning, it lives for the duration of one day, and in the evening it passes on, never to return again. As soon as the children are old enough to understand, the adults take them out at dawn and they say, ‘The sun has only one day. You must live this day in a good way, so that the sun won’t have wasted precious time.’ Acknowledging the preciousness of each day is a good way to live, a good way to reconnect with our basic joy.
~ Pema Chödrön
Sunrise, Monument Valley - photo by lucky-photographer, bigstockphoto.com
The most subversive thing we can do is love. If we do not like the way things are going, if we would like to see radical change: love is the way to create it. Anger and blame can release emotions of the moment, but they cannot sustain long term change. Only hope can do that. And love gives life hope in abundance. So join the revolution: love extravagantly.
~ Steven Charleston
Lotus - photo by Ange DiBenedetto
I do believe in an everyday sort of magic -- the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience with places, people, works of art and the like; the eerie appropriateness of moments of synchronicity; the whispered voice, the hidden presence, when we think we're alone.
~ Charles de Lint
Pacific Grove, CA - photo by Jen Silacci