And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw, for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit and the shape of all shapes as they must all live together as one being.
~ Black Elk
Joshua Tree Sunrise – photo by Rick Myers, bigstockphoto.com
One of the fundamental demonstrations of our natural instinct to Bond with each other is a will to give. Rather than domination, our most basic urge is to reach out to another human being, even at a cost to ourselves. Giving to others – the urge to empathize, to be compassionate, and to help others altruistically – is not the exception to the rule, but our natural state of being. Our impulse to connect with each other has developed an automatic desire to do for others, even at personal cost. Altruism comes naturally to us. It is selfishness that is culturally conditioned and a sign of pathology.
~ Lynne McTaggart
Cliffs of Moher at Sunset, Ireland – photo from bigstockphoto.com
As I see it we need the immense variety of the sources of joy opened through increased sensitivity toward the richness and diversity of life, through the profound cherishing of free natural landscapes Part of the joy stems from the consciousness of our intimate relation to something bigger than our own ego, something which has endured for millions of years and is worth continued life for millions of years. The requisite care flows naturally if the self is widened and deepened so that protection of free nature is felt and conceived of as protection of our very selves.
~ Arne Naess
String Lake, Jackson, WY – photo from bigstockphoto.com
humanitys future depends on our ability to evolve into awareness of our Oneness and the vibration of the consciousness of Unity, Divinity and Love. So, in the path of our Conscious Evolution into a New Earth, any story that does not carry within it the voice, vision and wisdom of the feminine the Sacred Feminine is an incomplete story and journey of humankind from this moment forward.
~ From Wake Up World FB Page, by guest writer Little Bear
Hoodoos in Bryce Canyon – photo from bigstockphoto.com
Our hearts intuitive feelings and discernment regarding lifes issues are natural gifts that we can refer to, no matter what religion, personal growth, or spiritual path we may believe in or practice. We dont have to be on a particular path to experience the limitless benefits of our hearts intelligent directions.
~ Doc Childre
Tropical Jungle, Southeast Asia – photo from bigstockphoto.com
Since Active Hope doesn’t require our optimism, we can apply it even in areas where we feel hopeless. The guiding impetus is intention; we choose what we aim to bring about, act for, or express. Rather than weighing our chances and proceeding only when we feel hopeful, we focus on our intention and let it be our guide.
~ Joanna Macy
Sun and Shore – photo from West Coast Scapes, bigstockphoto.com
I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.
~ Mary Oliver
National Park Forest – photo by K. D. Shutterman, bigstockphoto.com
BELONGING
In the pulse-beat is the life and the longing, all embraced in the great circle of belonging, reaching everywhere, leaving nothing and no one out. This embrace is mostly concealed from us who climb the relentless and vanishing escalator of time and journey outside where space is lonesome with distance. All we hear are whispers, all we see are glimpses; but each of us has the divinity of imagination which warms our hearts with the beauty and depth of a world woven from glimpses and whispers, an eternal world that meets the gaze of our eyes and the echo of our voices to assure us that from all eternity we have belonged, and to answer the question that echoes at the heart of all longing: While we are here, where is it that we are absent from?
~ John O’Donohue
Yangshuo, China – photo by Jan kowalski, bigstockphoto.com
Service is a principle of Nature. Nothing could survive without it. The Earth supports our every function; the sun gives us warmth, light, and food; the trees and clouds blanket us in cool respite; rivers quench our thirst and need for growth – all without asking for anything from those who take these gifts. It has to be this way, for the magnitude of what is given to us by the natural world is beyond our ability to repay it.
~ Shephali Patel
Douglas Fir Trees Pacific Northwest Forest – photo by Craig Chanowski, bigstockphoto.com
Our challenge is to create a new language, even a new sense of what it is to be human. It is to transcend not only national limitations, but even our species isolation, to enter into the larger community of living species. This brings about a completely new sense of reality and value.
~ Thomas Berry
Raccoon Hiding in Hollow Stump – photo from bigstockphoto.com
…we must remember that in oneness we are connected to all of life on this earth, joined together in a web of life. This means we must live from a place of honor and respect. We are part of nature, not separate from it.
~ Sandra Ingerman
Cathedral Rock, Sedona, AZ – photo from bigstockphoto.com
Love links us all together in the most mysterious ways, and love can guide our hearts and hands. And the central note of love is oneness. Love speaks the language of oneness, of unity rather than separation.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Frangipani/West Indian Jasmine – photo from bigstockphoto.com
Spiritual ecology is the fire by which you can sit, to hear the stories of our human legacy and responsibility told once again in clear voices. It is the place where you understand most intimately and immediately that spirit and nature are one, and that what affects one thing ultimately affects everything. It is a revolution back to the truth of things.
~ Shephali Patel
Ocean Sunset – photo from bigstockphoto.com
Indigenous teachings embrace the divine feminine in a way that is crucial for healing the earth and ourselves. For thousands of years it has been known that everything that exists in this world is alive and has a spirit.
We are connected to a web of life that reflects the impact of the behavior of all that is alive. We can speak to the spirit of the trees, plants, rocks, rivers, animals, birds, insects, and reptiles and perceive their divine nature. As everything that exists is alive, each being also recognizes the divine in us. The earth is alive and is a sacred being. It is time for us to align with the heartbeat of the earth.
~ Sandra Ingerman
Red Ibis, Bermuda – photo by Devadana Sanctuary
For some people, opening themselves to compassionate responses initially creates its own kind of pain. When we recognize that all people – actually, all beings – are capable of suffering, our relationship to others changes. As the ripples of compassion move out beyond the circumference of our own suffering or that of our loved ones and friends, we may find it increasingly impossible to ignore the plight of people we’ve never met
~ Nancy Napier, from “Sacred Practices for Conscious Living”, 2nd Edition
Grand Canyon – Desert View Point, photo from bigstockphoto.com
