Grateful eyes look at each thing as if they had never seen it before and caress it as if they would never see it again.
~ Br. David Steindl-Rast
El Capitan, Yosemite Valley – photo by jeffbanke, bigstockphoto.com
May the stars carry your sadness away,
May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,
May hope forever wipe away your tears,
And, above all, may silence make you strong.
~ Chief Dan George
Monument Valley, Navajo Nation, AZ – photo by tobkatrina, bigstockphoto.com
When our mind is not partnering with our heart, it often favors our ego’s choices in decisions, more than supporting the highest outcome for all concerned.
~ Doc Childre
Lotus – photo by Ange DiBennedetto
We are all connected with the deep ecology of the universe and each of us has the ability to extend our consciousness far beyond the range of our physical senses.
~ Duane Elgin
Tree and Starry Night – photo by Narathip, bigstockphoto.com
You may consider yourself an individual but, as a cell biologist, I can tell you that you are in truth a cooperative community of approximately fifty trillion single-celled citizens.
~ Bruce Lipton
Stars – Hubble – photo by NASA
FINDING BEAUTY
For some of us, the change of seasons from summer to fall means watching the beauty of green leaves on the trees disappear as the leaves change color and eventually fall to the ground. Even with the captivating beauty of Fall colors, there can be a sense of losing something precious as the green disappears. Some of us have found that the shift from lush leaves of summer to bare branches and trunks of trees offers an often unexpected opportunity to see the unique shapes of trees. We discover that there are no two trees exactly alike and that under all those leaves branches and trunks were “dancing”, creating previously hidden and intricate patterns.
This practice invites us to discover the beauty in what is around us, even when we may feel that the beauty we love is being lost. For this practice, offer yourself an opportunity to seek out what fills you up in a way that nourishes your eyes, your heart, your soul. This might be a visual discovery, maybe a building you had never noticed before that you somehow see in a new way, perhaps being drawn to the artistry of the architect. Maybe it is the sound of something that you haven’t paid attention to until now. Many people have felt the experience of discovering the silence that comes after a snowfall–the “sound” of silence.
Whatever it is, orient your awareness to discovering beauty in some of the everyday things you encounter all the time. Look for something new, something previously unrecognized. Discover or enhance your experience of the fact that our intention to find beauty orients our perceptions and awareness to do just that.
Here’s an audio version of the written information below, if you prefer to listen to it.
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
Snow Monkeys, Onsen Hot Springs, Nagano, Japan – photo by BlueOrange Studio, bigstockphoto.com
When we think in terms of relationships, we realise that we need to develop good relationships with the other persons in our ecosystem—prosperous, mutually beneficial relationships. A relational worldview makes us aware of our own interconnected and interdependent relationship with the world around us. So, even if we don’t believe that the tree in our garden is a person, or the river in our village, or the sky above our heads, we can still behave as if they are—our actions can be informed by a relational ecocentric perspective, rather than a purely anthropocentric one.
~Jack Hunter
Trees and Waterfall, Yosemite National Park – photo by alpenart, bigtockphoto.com
To perceive the soul of the Earth requires a sense of what Taoists call the way of life, the fact that everything in our world is in relationship to everything else, that nothing is itself without everything else, and that anything that seems to be a distinct thing is actually an element or strand in a larger pattern.
~ Geneen Marie Haugen
Snowy Yosemite – photo by Andy777, bigstockphoto.com .
They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.
~ Hermann Hesse
Autumn Leaves and River – photo by silver-john, bigstockphoto.com
Grandfather,
Sacred one,
Teach us love, compassion,
and honor.
That we may heal the earth
And heal each other.
~ Ojibway Prayer
Grand Teton National Park – photo by Alexey Kamenskly, bigstockphoto.com
The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?
-J. B. (John Boynton) Priestley
Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite Valley – photo by lbomarth, bigstockphoto.com
Nature is not unfeeling matter; it is full of invisible forces with their own intelligence and deep knowing. We need to re-acknowledge the existence of the spiritual world within creation if we are even to begin the real work of bringing the world back into balance.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Autumn Forest, Carpathian, Ukraine – photo by Leopnid Tit, bigstockphoto.com
Since a living presence is felt to be in and through everything, all things are seen and experienced as related. Because everything is connected through the Great Spirit, everything deserves to be treated with respect.
~ Duane Elgin
Arch Rock Canyon, Arches National Park, UT – photo by Bill Perry, bigstockphoto.com
Gratefulness…is an overall orientation to life. When we wake up in the morning and feel grateful just for the blessing of being alive, we open our heart and senses to the gifts and opportunities of another day, a day that was never guaranteed. This approach to gratitude is more radical since it isn’t contingent on a transaction—on something good happening to us—but is rather a way of living.
~ Kristi Nelson
Late Autumn Forest – photo by Fototick, bigstockphoto.com
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