The first time I entered into a redwood forest…I dropped to my knees and began crying because the spirit of the forest just gripped me.
~ Julia Butterfly Hill
Redwood Forest – photo by volare2004, bigstockphoto.com
Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.
~ Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Lake Reflections – photo by keeklers, bigstockphoto.com
All living things are individual instruments through which the Mind of the Universe thinks, speaks and acts. We are all interrelated in a common accord, a common purpose, and a common good. We are members of a vast cosmic orchestra, in which each living instrument is essential to the complementary and harmonious playing of the whole.
~ J. Allen Boone
Milky Way – photo by Ronnachai, bigtockphoto.com
The earth community, the Life Community, is not the property of any one religion or group or part of the world; it is the Commons that embraces us all, our planetary home. And it needs us as never before. It calls to us to become, not heroes but community builders, builders of home, gatherers and embracers, bearers of hospitality, keepers of the shared space that nurtures us all. It calls us not to go forth and come back laden with honors but to honor where we are, who we are, and from that place to reach out to connect to and honor each other in the community of life.
~ David Spangler
Mountain Landscape at Sunset – photo by jenyateua, bigstockphoto.com
We also need this capacity to see that the present moment is not the final word, that there is always the possibility that we can transcend our own limitations—the planet, the Earth, the society can do that.
~ Sister Miriam MacGillis, “Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth”
Beech Forest Sunrise – photo by nature78, bigstockphoto.com
Some of us are drawn to mountains the way the moon draws the tide. Both the great forests and the mountains live in my bones. They have taught me, humbled me, purified me, and changed me: Mount Fuji, Mount Shasta, Mount Kailas, the Schreckhorn, Kanchenjunga. Mountains are abodes for ancestor and deity. They are places where energy is discovered, made, acquired and spent. Mountains are symbols, as well, of enduring truth and of the human quest for spirit. I was told long ago to spend time with mountains.
~ Joan Halifax, The Fruitful Darkness
Grand Teton National Park, WY – photo by phdpsx, bigstockphoto.com
Walking, I can almost hear the redwoods beating. And the oceans are above me here, rolling clouds, heavy and dark. It is winter and there is smoke from the fires. It is a world of elemental attention, of all things working together, listening to what speaks in the blood. Whichever road I follow, I walk in the land of many gods, and they love and eat one another. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.
~ Linda Hogan, Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World
Half-Dome, Yosemite Just Before a Thunderstorm – photo by Melissa Kopka, bigstockphoto.com
Nature has been experimenting with fungi for a billion years, perfecting a lot of powerful survival tools. We can use these tools in fantastic ways—to revive damaged ecosystems, to help offset global warming, and even to prevent diseases.
~ Paul Stamets, Fantastic Fungi
Mushrooms on a Tree Stump, Germany – photo by danil_1972, bigstockphoto.com
In becoming aware of the spiritual dimension of reality, the shamanic practitioner knows and sees the sacred in everything and experiences the direct knowledge that everything comes from the same divine source—that everything is the Source.
~ Claude Poncelet
Oxbow Bend, Grand Tetons – photo by Steve Byland, bigstockphoto.com
There are many things to be grateful “for” but, as I ripen with the seasons of life, the many reasons blend into a sacred mystery. And, most deeply, I realize that living gratefully is its own blessing.
~ Michael Mahoney
Maldives – photo by Czamfir, 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
Virgin Forest, Montenegro Mountains – photo by Alexander Nikiforov, bigstockphoto.com
…spirituality can give us an actual experience of the unity of all things. This experience, when nurtured as a constant practice, roots equality-consciousness, non-discrimination, non-violence and reverence for all people and the earth deep into our core.
~ Michael Edwards
Russell Falls, Mount Field National Park, Tasmania, Australia – photo by PhotoImages, bigstockphoto.com
What if there were another system and jurisprudence, based upon the concept that the planet and all of its species have rights — and they have those rights by virtue of their existence as component members of a single Earth community?
~ Thomas Berry
Lee Mountain and Munds Mountain, Sedona – photo by hpbfotos, bigstockphoto.com
Subtle activism can be understood as a set of practices that allow us to connect, in the depths of our being, with our love for the world and our longing for it to reflect the highest potentials of human nature…[It] represents the intention to cultivate this force as a transformative presence in the world…underlying and informing all [our] actions is a shift in consciousness involving a deeper awareness of our essential interconnectedness.
~ David Nicol, from “Subtle Activism: The Inner Dimension of Social and Planetary Transformation”
Sunset – photo by rasica, bigstockphoto.com
We need to face the reality of our outer ecological crisis. We also need to sense inwardly the loss of the sacred, all the ways in which as a culture we have lost our sense of “interbeing” with all of creation.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Quetzal, Costa Rica – photo by Dudarev Mikhail, bigstockphoto.com
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