We all breathe only one air, we all drink only one water, we all live on only one earth. We must all protect it.
~ Chief Raoni
Moonrise Above the Mittens, Monument Valley – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
Be aware of the contact between your feet and the Earth. Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet. We have caused a lot of damage to the Earth. Now it is time for us to take good care of her. We bring our peace and calm to the surface of the Earth and share the lesson of love. We walk in that spirit.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
I’m taking off
on my own two feet. I’m going
to clear my head…
to listen to trees and silence,to see if I can still breathe…
I’m going to be alone with
myself, to feel how it feels
to embrace what my feet
tell my head, what wind says
in my good ear.
~Philip Booth
Old Coast Road, Big Sur, CA – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
Do not try to save the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life
and wait there patiently,
until the song that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know how to give yourself
to this world
so worthy of rescue.
~Martha Postlewaite
Middle North Falls, photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
Suddenly, from behind the rim of the moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate, sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth home. My view of our planet was a glimpse of divinity.
~ Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut
Double Rainbow, Yosemite Valley – Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
A consciousness that looks to the whole is far more expansive and powerful than one caught within the fragmented image of an insular identity…A global consciousness gives us access to a different level of awareness and support. It also demands that we take responsibility for the whole.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
When we speak of Nature it is wrong to forget that we are ourselves a part of Nature. We ought to view ourselves with the same curiosity and openness with which we study a tree, the sky or a thought, because we too are linked to the entire universe.
~ Henri Matisse
The Bend – Photo by Chris Williams Exploration Photography, used with permission
Matter is not dead, however we may treat it. It is part of a living organism like the cells in our own body. And this living organism is an embodiment of spirit. We have to bring together spirit and matter, heal the split that has wounded our world.
~ Llewelleyn Vaughan-Lee
Crescent Moon – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
Another human cannot possibly provide all of the outrageously diverse and vital nourishment that we once got from being in relationship with dragonflies and swallowtails and stones and lichen and turtles. Its just not possible. We used to carry on personal relationships with the sun and the moon and the stars!
~ David Abram
Happy Creek – North Cascades, photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission