We are surrounded by signs and wonders. Each day they appear right before us and in places we least expect. A string of little coincidences. A sudden connection between two points. A blast of inspiration. The Spirit sends us signals, signs along the trail, to keep us pointed in the right direction. The Spirit provides what we need. The Spirit offers us a chance to use our imagination. We see wondrous acts of love and courageous acts of mercy. We realize we are part of something much bigger than any one vision can convey.

~ Steven Charleston

El Matador State Beach, CA – photio by bennymarty, bigstockphoto.com

https://portaltomdl.com/30134-2/

There is a world behind this world. The old cultures used to be in constant conversation with it through the sacred practices of storytelling, dreaming, ceremony, and song. They invited the Otherworld to visit them, to transmit its wisdom to them, so that they might be guided by an ancient momentum. 

But as we succumbed to the spell of rationalism, the living bridge between the worlds fell into disrepair. As fewer made the journey back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch, we forgot how to find the Otherworld. 

At any given moment, we are either turning away from or coming into congruence with our kinship with mystery.

~ Toko-pa Turner

Sunrise, Contrails, and Cloud Formations – photo by Leighton R, bigstockphoto.com

https://portaltomdl.com/30110-2/

The idea of the universe as an interconnected whole is not new; for millennia it’s been one of the core assumptions of Eastern philosophies. What is new is that Western science is slowly beginning to realize that some elements of that ancient lore might be correct. 

~ Dean Radin

Full Moon Over Garden of the Gods, Colorado – photo by RKimbrow, bigstockphoto.com

https://portaltomdl.com/30083-2/

We cannot step outside life’s songs. This music made us; it is our nature.

Our ethic must therefore be one of belonging, an imperative made all the more urgent by the many ways that human actions are fraying, rewiring, and severing biological networks worldwide. To listen to trees, nature’s great connectors, is therefore to learn how to inhabit the relationships that give life its source, substance, and beauty.

~ David George Haskell

Old Linden Tree, Mohni Island, Estonioa, Europe – photo by Artenex, bigstockphoto.com 

https://portaltomdl.com/30052-2/

What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.

~ Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Navajo Arch, Arches National Park, Utah – photo by Maygulyak, bigstockphoto.com

https://portaltomdl.com/30034-2/

It is quite possible – even probable – that the Earth is really a living organism, and that it in turn is a part of an even larger organism, that whole constellations are alive, transmitting and receiving energy to and from other celestial energy sources.

~ John Keel

Tree and Milky Way photo by sripfoto, bigstockphoto.com

https://portaltomdl.com/30019-2/

For myself, solitude is rather like a folded-up forest that I carry with me everywhere and unfurl around myself when I have need.

~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Redwood Forest, CA – photo by Svetlana Day, bigstockphoto.com

https://portaltomdl.com/30007-2/

The whole of planet Earth is a sacred site. All people are the chosen people, and the purpose of life is a spiritual one. May we care for each other, and for the earth, for everything relates to everything else. Feeling this oneness, may we radiate the light of love and kindness that all may live in unity and peace.

~ Radha Sahar

Caswell Bay Sunrise, Swansea – photo by Leighton R, bigstockphoto.com

https://portaltomdl.com/29991-2/

Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. This is not philosophy. This is physics. 

~ Albert Einstein

Aurora Borealis – photo by denbelitsky, bigstockphoto.com

https://portaltomdl.com/29977-2/

Many indigenous communities understand that we are living in one of many “worlds” that have existed here on Earth. There have been worlds before this one and there will be worlds after it. Each world, each span of human cultural evolution, has reshaped what we consider reality. Once we dwelt in caves, now in towers of glass. The great wheel turns. Many of us can feel that process of transformation happening right now. We are aware that we are on a threshold. Our work is to seed into the future all that we know that is loving, healing, and wise. We are already at work as ancestors, even before we become ancestors.

~ Steven Charleston

Ocean Sunrise – photo by Smileus, bigstockphoto.com

https://portaltomdl.com/29957-2/

All human beings are descendants of tribal people who were spiritually alive, intimately in love with the natural world, children of Mother Earth. 

When we were tribal people, we knew who we were, we knew where we were, and we knew our purpose. 

This sacred perception of reality remains alive and well in our genetic memory. 

We carry it inside of us, usually in a dusty box in the mind’s attic, but it is accessible.

~ John Trudell 

Sunrise, Monument Valley, AZ – photo by RusianKphoto, bigstockphoto.com

https://portaltomdl.com/29945-2/

If we want to survive on a planet that is finite and delicately interwoven, in terms of relationships, we have got to break free of that prison cell of the separate self.

~ Joanna Macy

Spring in Central Park – photo by Devadana Sanctuary

https://portaltomdl.com/29932-2/

The world needs inspiration, the world needs to know that it is possible to preserve the natural environment and to live in harmony with nature. The world needs to stop looking at its Indigenous peoples as poor people in need of support; we need to change this perspective and say that Indigenous people are fighting to protect life, to protect a natural equilibrium, because, thanks to the struggle [of the Indigenous], we can still say that there is hope for life on this planet to continue.

~ Patricia Gualinga

Living Forest – photo by nature78 – bigstockphoto.com

https://portaltomdl.com/29919-2/

I want to feel both the beauty and the pain of the age we are living in. I want to survive my life without becoming numb. I want to speak and comprehend words of wounding without having these words become the landscape where I dwell. I want to possess a light touch that can elevate darkness to the realm of stars. 

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Monument Valley – photo by fullempty, bigstockphoto.com

https://portaltomdl.com/29895-2/