If mind and matter can be understood as emerging out of a common order, then it will no longer be helpful to think of them both as distinct substances but rather as inseparable manifestations of the one undivided whole.
~ F. David Peat
Red Peonies – photo from bigstockphoto.com
All you creatures with wings,
Eagle and Bee,
Ichneumon Fly and Wren,
as you fly on our Mothers breath,
I, your little sister,
ask you,
carry my heartbeat morning prayer
in your wingbeat:
How I love you – How I thank you –
Carry it up to our Mothers lap,
carry it into our Fathers ear,
carry it
three times around
the belly of the Earth.
~ Megan Boyd, North America
Wild Blue Heron – photo by Peter Lakomy, bigstockphoto.com
Because we all share this planet earth, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature. This is not just a dream, but a necessity.
~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Alaska Sunset – photo by Raymona Pooler, bigstockphoto.com
Recognizing that plants, for instance, have consciousness, or that their simple presence in our environment has healing effects, reintroduces an element of wonder and mystery back into the experience of the natural world.
~ Sayer Ji
Bamboo Forest in Morning Sunlight – photo from bigstockphoto.com
A closed heart creates a barrier between heart and mind that allows us to tell ourselves that we are all separate and different, rather than feeling the pain of how much we share similar hurts and yearnings. To experience compassion and lovingkindness as integral parts of daily life means to allow our hearts to open and let in the reality that we all have the capacity to feel rejection, humiliation, fear, rage, love, desire, hunger, and joy.
Fortunately, there is a comforting paradox at work here: the more you open your heart, the more flexible and resilient you become in the face of life’s daily challenges and unexpected demands. What develops is similar to the difference between a tree that is stiff and brittle and one that is supple and able to bend. The first tree is at risk for injury in high winds and storms; the second has a much better chance of surviving intact.
~ Nancy Napier, “Sacred Practices for Conscious Living, 2nd Edition”
Iguazu Falls from Argentina Side, photo from bigstockphoto.com
The trees act not as individuals, but somehow as a collective. Exactly how they do this, we dont yet know. But what we see is the power of unity. What happens to one happens to us all. We can starve together or feast together.
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer
Path in a Cedar Forest – photo from bigstockphoto.com
is it not ludicrous to address the world directly, to speak to other organisms and elements as though they could understand? Certainly not, if such is the simplest way to open our ears toward those others, compelling us to listen, with all our senses, for the reply of the things. To be sure, the valleys and the oaks do not speak in words. But neither do humans speak only in words. We speak with our whole bodies, deploying a language of gesture, tone, and rhythm that animates all our discourse.
~ David Abram, “Between the Body and the Breathing Earth”
Beach at Cathedral Cove, Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand – photo from bigstockphoto.com
At this time it is especially important to give the gift of love back to the earth, the same Earth that we are poisoning and polluting. Return love with simple acts: planting some herbs with care and attention; walking, our feet touching the ground with love every step; seeing spring blossoms, aware of her beauty. The Earth is so generous, she has given us life and yet we desecrate her, attack her fragile web. It is time to fall in love again with the earth, to remember that she is sacred and help in her healing, to listen to her and love her.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Mt. Rainier National Park, WA – photo by Andrushko Galyna, bigstock.com
Accessing our natural heart intelligence can create an energetic field of unconditional love and harmonious interaction – helping humanity to realize we are one Earth, one yard, one people. Love is the one thing that can bring all this together coherently and eventually thrive.
~ Doc Childre
Acacia Tree, Masai Mara Game Reserve, Kenya, Africa – photo by D. N. Davis, bigstockphoto.com
Next time you see a tree or plant, take a moment to express thanks. With each breath you take in, experience gratitude for the oxygen that would simply not be there save for the magnificent work plants have done in transforming our atmosphere and making it breathable. As you look at all the greenery, bear in mind also that plants, by absorbing carbon dioxide and reducing the greenhouse effect, have saved our world from becoming dangerously overheated. Without plants and all they do for us, we would not be alive today. Consider how you would like to express your thanks.
~ Joanna Macy
Ferns in Rainforest, New Zealand – photo from bigstockphoto.com
THE ANCIENT RHYTHMS OF THE EARTH
The earth is our origin and destination. The ancient rhythms of the earth have insinuated themselves into the rhythms of the human heart. The earth is not outside us; it is within: the clay from where the tree of the body grows. When we emerge from our offices, rooms and houses, we enter our natural element. We are children of the earth; people to whom the outdoors is home. Nothing can separate us from the vigour and vibrancy of this inheritance. In contrast to our frenetic, saturated lives, the earth offers a calming stillness. The patience of nature enjoys the ease of trust and hope. There is something in our clay nature that needs to continually experience this ancient, outer ease of the world. It helps us remember who we are and why we are here.
~ John O’Donohue
Yosemite in Summer – photo from bigstockphoto.com
“Ease” is an inner state that helps us transit more smoothly through the energies and rhythms of our lifes experiences. Operating in the state of inner ease allows us easier connection with our hearts intuitive guidance to provide creative ideas, practical solutions or effective options for responding to most situations.
~ Doc Childre
Mountain Stream – photo from bigstockphoto.com
Wildness we might consider as the root of the authentic spontaneities of any being. It is that wellspring of creativity whence comes the instinctive activities that enable all living beings to obtain their food, to find shelter, to bring forth their young: to sing and dance and fly through the air and swim through the depths of the sea. This is the same inner tendency that evokes the insight of the poet, the skill of the artist and the power of the shaman.
~ Thomas Berry
Leopard – photo from 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, “Sacred Practices for Conscious Living, 2nd Edition”
Sunrise in the Everglades – photo by Brian Lasenby, bigstockphoto.com
If the GCI [Global Coherence Initiative] hypothesis that Earths magnetic fields are a carrier of information that connects all living systems proves true, it will help people understand how individually and collectively we are affecting a global information field. That our attitudes, emotions and intentions matter and can affect all life on Earth and that coherent, cooperative intent could impact global events and improve the quality of life on Earth.
~ Deborah Rozman, “Heart Intelligence: Connecting with the Intuitive Guidance of the Heart”
Bryce Canyon – photo from bigstockphoto.com
