What does it mean to say that nature is personal? In the broadest sense, it means choosing a different paradigm from the Western idea of nature as machine…It means holding the possibility that all things on Earth, even rocks and mountains, have their own will and intention.
~ Priscilla Stuckey, “Kissed By A Fox”
El Capitan, Yosemite Valley, CA – photo by jeffbanke, bigstockphoto.com
The whole aim of [Indigenous] cultures is to let the world know that they too belong to the same family and to start caring for the land, for the environment, for the mountains and waterways and the trees and every other living thing on this earth as brothers and sisters and family members. That’s our greatest dream and desire, to see that happen…
That’s the good part about it. We are not alone. The whole purpose of our living is to relate well to every other thing as family. Once we do that everything will be made right.
~ Uncle Bob Randall, Aboriginal Elder
The Twelve Apostles, Australia – photo by Gogliik83, bigstockphoto.com
From an interview on the CBC show, Tapestry:
Robin Wall Kimmerer posed the question to her forest biology students at the State University of New York, in their final class last March, before the pandemic sent everyone home.
The answer was at least as useful as anything to be found in the glut of how-to-survive COVID stories that would follow over the next nine months:
• Give more than you take
• Be patient when resources are scarce
• Find creative ways to use what you have
“Mosses have this ability, rather than demanding a lot from the world, they’re very creative in using what they have, rather than reaching for what they don’t have,” Kimmerer told Tapestry. “When there are limits, the mosses say, ‘Let’s be quiet for a while. Abundance, openness, water, will return. We’ll wait this out.'” …
Tapestry asked Kimmerer how she would go about cutting flowers to bring into her home.
“I would greet those flowers and say how beautiful they are. I’m so grateful that you’re growing here. And, you know, my mom’s coming over and I want to cheer her up. May I cut some flowers to bring your beauty to her in our house?” explains Kimmerer. “If the answer is yes … I would cut them and give a gift in return and bring them in.”
~ CBC Radio, on Tapestry, posted on Faceboo
Lichen in Moss – photo by abbet, bigstockphoto.com
I would say that there exist a thousand unbreakable links between each of us and everything else, and that our dignity and our chances are one. The farthest star and the mud at our feet are a family; and there is no decency or sense in honoring one thing, or a few things, and then closing the list. The pine tree, the leopard, the Platte River, and ourselves—we are at risk together, or we are on our way to a sustainable world together. We are each other’s destiny.
~ Mary Oliver
Ocelot in Brazilian Jungle – photo by Photocech, bigstockphoto.com
The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time. They are kneeling with hands clasped that we might act with restraint, that we might leave room for the life that is destined to come. To protect what is wild is to protect what is gentle. Perhaps the wilderness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats, the silent space that says we live only by grace. Wilderness lives by this same grace. Wild mercy is in our hands.
~ Terry Tempest Williams
Rainforest Creek – photo by Greg Brave, bigstockphoto.com
We’re not going to solve our own problems or the problems of the world the old way. The masculine ways, the ways of the warrior, of violence, don’t work. This is a historic time for women, and for the feminine. Women who welcome and live their own power can help shift the consciousness of the world, to bring out a more positive side of the feminine, to bring a new way of being into the world. Feminine spirit more than ever wants us to acknowledge its presence, wants us to be truthful and honest about where its energy is, and to use it to heal.
~ Sobonfu Somé
Snowy Scene – photo by optimistic_view, bigstockphoto.com
…the Reindeer Goddess honored by the ancient Lithuanian, Latvian, Slavic and Sami people of Northern Europe. These people believed that this goddess in the form or a reindeer or in a chariot pulled through the sky by reindeer flew over the land on the Winter Solstice bestowing gifts on the folks below. How exciting to discover that the quintessential modern symbol of Christmas, Santa Claus, has its origins in the Reindeer Goddess – a deity who brought the people hope as they passed through the dark time.
~ Judith Shaw
Carpathian Mountains, Romania – photo by igabriela, bigstockphoto.com
…if we are all swimming in the same ocean of subtle aliveness, then it makes sense that we would each have a direct experience of communion with, and concern for, the well-being of others. If we share the same matrix of existence, then the rest of life is already touching me, co-creating the field within which I exist.
~ Duane Elgin
Bald Eagle, Rocky Mountains – photo by Designwest, bigstockphoto.com
…We have been wrong. 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. We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it.
~ Wendell Berry
Frosty Sunset – photo by Alex_Ugaqlek, bigstockphoto.com
Have you allowed that familiar yet mysterious being we call plant to teach you its secrets? Have you noticed how deeply peaceful it is? How it is surrounded by a field of stillness? The moment you become aware of a plant’s emanation of stillness and peace, that plant becomes your teacher.
~ Eckhart Tolle
Sunset, Black Sea Cliffs – photo by Mr. Smith, 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
Tree in Snow – photo by jaapbleijenberg, bigstockphoto.com
Many shamans say we are dreaming the wrong dream. We live with the illusion that we are separate from nature, separate from the spiritual realms, and that we are victims of our life and our environment…As we begin to change our consciousness and get in touch with the light inside us, we can effect great changes in our outer world. It is who we become that changes the world.
~ Sandra Ingerman
Grand Canyon – photo by Songquan Deng, bigstockphoto.com
…sacredness is inherent in the very essence of life and the multiple patterns of its arising. Sacredness is the radiant expansion of the heart, the devotion to life that rises in contemplation of the inexhaustible mystery that is unity in diversity, the One manifesting through the whole of creation.
~ Eleanor O’Hanlon
Lotus Blossoms – photo by Ange DiBenedetto
By dismissing as naïve any human perception of sentience or intelligence in the natural world, the dominant view is deeply implicated in the ecological crisis insofar as it has permitted and justified a profoundly irreverent attitude toward nature. [Thomas Berry} argued that the imperative for the human is to appreciate that the Earth and all its living and nonliving components forms an integral community, that the human is a member of this community, and that we will find our greatest fulfillment by advancing the well-being of the total community.
~ David Nicol
Barred Owl, Cascade Mountains, WA – photo by Dan Schreiber, bigstockphoto.com
There is something on the wind. Something unseen but still tangible. You can sense it. You can feel it. A new reality suddenly presents itself. We may not be sure where it came from or what it will do now that it is here, but the winds of change have begun to blow and things will not be the same again.
~ Steven Charleston
Mountain River Sunrise, British Columbia – photo by TNPhoto, bigstockphoto.com
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