It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Islands of Fam Island, Papula, New Guinea – photo by attiarndt, bigstockphoto.com
This is perhaps one of the most important things I learned during this investigation: We see what we believe, and not just the contrary; and to change what we see, it is sometimes necessary to change what we believe.
~ Jeremy Narby, “The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge
This is what kindness does – it points us to what is really important, to what really matters, and to what is meaningful. It brings us home to the love that we already are.
~ Amanda Gilbert, Kindness Now
Lotus Blossom – photo by Ange DiBennedetto
We live in a world where everything is connected. We can no longer think in terms of us and them when it comes to the consequences of the way we live. Today it’s all about WE.
~ Gregg Braden
Rainforest Jungle, Huay Mae Kamin Waterfall, Thailand – photo by Casanowe, bigstockphoto.com
As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
~ Black Elk
Antelope Canyon, AZ – photo by lorcel, bigstockphoto.com
Communication with other species encourages deeper and more harmonious relationships with Nature. Sensing the messages being relayed by a ‘non-talking’ being involves listening with an open mind and an open heart. This is the way of the Shaman, and the way of living with respect and in harmony with all of Earth’s beings. Inter-species communication is also known as Telepathy and is the universal language of Nature.
By seeing Earth herself, and all of Nature as sentient, we open ourselves up to the communication that exists between all life and all species.
Feeling becomes equally if not more important as thinking. Action is motivated by preservation not destruction. Care overrides cruelty. As fellow sentient beings we don’t take from Nature, depleting and destroying her, but rather we become one with her.
~ Naturesheart.org
African Leopard, Kruger National Park, South Africa – photo by bennymarty, bigstockphoto.com
The universe is always speaking to us. … Sending us little messages, causing coincidences and serendipities, reminding us to stop, to look around, to believe in something else, something more.
~ Nancy Thayer
Autumn Leaves – photo by MarjanCermelj, bigstockphoto.com
We must have a vision of the future sufficiently entrancing that it will sustain us in the transformation of the human project that is now in process. That future can exist only when we understand the universe as composed of subjects to be communed with, not as objects to be exploited. “Use” as our primary relationship with the planet must be abandoned…
~ Thomas Berry
Sunrise, A New Day – photo by Leonid Tit, bigstockphoto.com
The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy. Daily prayers are delivered on the lips of breaking waves, the whispering of grasses, the shimmering of leaves.
~ Terry Tempest Williams
Autumn Forest – photo by Leonid Tit, bigstockphoto.com
By one estimate, 5 billion tons of carbon flow from plants
to mycorrhizal fungi annually. Without help from the
fungi, that carbon would likely stay in the atmosphere as
carbon dioxide, the powerful greenhouse gas that is
heating the planet and fueling dangerous weather.
“Keeping this fungal network protected is paramount as
we face climate change,” Dr. Toby Kiers said.
In addition, the biodiversity of underground fungi is a
huge factor in soil health, which is crucial to the world’s
ability to feed itself as the planet warms.
~ New York Times, “Unearthing the Secret Superpowers of Fungus”
Bioluminescent Fungi – Panellus Stipticus – photo by Ylem
Earth Mother teach me of my kin,
of Hawk, and Dove, and flower,
of blinding sunlight, shady knoll,
desert wind and morning showers.
Teach me every language of
the creatures that sing to me,
that I may count the cadence of
infinite lessons in harmony.
~ Jamie Sams
Bald Eagle, Rocky Mountain High Country – photo by Designwest, bigstockphoto.com
A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
~ Albert Einstein
Lake and Mist – photo by idizimage, bigstockphoto.com
Fungi made the world as we know it. As some of the first
life forms on the planet, they consumed minerals locked
in rocks, creating what we now know as soil. Without
them, there would be no plants on land, and therefore,
no animals. No us.
~ New York Times, “Unearthing the Secret Superpowers of Fungus”
Omphalotus nidiformis – photo by Cas Liber, Wikipedia Commons
…deep ecologists seek to emphasize that all living beings should be permitted, whenever possible, to purse their own evolutionary destinies. In contrast to anthropocentrism, in which things have value only insofar as they are useful for promoting human ends…ecocentrism calls on people to respect individual beings and the ecosystem in which they arise.
~ M. C. Zimmerman
Great White Egret – photo by meils, bigstockphoto.com
Earth is not a platform for human life. It’s a living being. We’re not on it but part of it. Its health is our health.
~ Thomas Moore
Hunts Mesa Sunrise, Monument Valley, AZ – photo by Bill45, bigstockphoto.com
