Our natural state of being is in relationship, a tango, a constant state of one influencing the other. Just as the subatomic particles that compose us cannot be separated from the space and particles surrounding them, so living beings cannot be isolated from each other…
~ Lynn McTaggart
Sunrise, Grand Canyon National Park – photo by maverick888, bigstockphoto.com
If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
Snowy Sunset, Yosemite – photo by YuliyahH, bigstockphoto.com
The world is not decided by action alone. It is decided more by consciousness and spirit; they are the secret sources of all action and behavior. The spirit of a time is an incredibly subtle, yet hugely powerful force. And it is comprised of the mentality and spirit of all individuals together. Therefore, the way you look at things is not simply a private matter. Your outlook actually and concretely affects what goes on. When you give in to helplessness, you collude with despair and add to it. When you take back your power and choose to see the possibilities for healing and transformation, your creativity awakens and flows to become an active force of renewal and encouragement in the world. In this way, even in your own hidden life, you can become a powerful agent of transformation.
~ John O’Donohue
Sunrise, Lake Minnwanka, Banff, Canada – photo by Songquan Deng, bigstockphoto.com
The nitrogen in our DNA.
The calcium in our teeth.
The iron in our blood.
The carbon in our apple pies.
Were made in the interiors of collapsing stars.
We are made of star stuff.
~ Carl Sagan
False Kiva and Milky Way, Canyonlands National OPark, Utah – phtoo by Kris Wiktor, bigstockphoto.com
We must relinquish our convenient narratives of human exceptionalism and triumphalism – those stories that centralize human agency and enthrone human interests as supremely paramount in the multiverse. And we must do this not simply because we are now regaining some awareness about the nobility of other species and life forms – and not entirely because we are ourselves now humbled by our less than spectacular origins, but mainly because these times of upheaval call on us to revisit what is implied in being human. Do we continue to insist that we are lords over all, masters of the universe – uniquely distanced from the fleshy, dirty discourses of ‘nature’ – ravaging plagues burning soil and earth into asphalted forms of our own making? Or do we recognize our relatedness to all things, our real dependence on the land we supposedly transcend, and that to be human is not a magisterial decree of isolation, but a chorus…a syncretic process of shared ecological participation?
~ Bayo Akomolafe
Sunrise on the Mediterranean, Costa Brava, Spain – photo by Dzmitrock, bigstockphoto.com
I believe that humanity is suffering from a great separation sickness – a real disconnect from nature. My sense is that by understanding animals more deeply, we can begin to heal ourselves.
~ Anna Breytenbach
Magical Being – African White Lion – photo by EnjoyLife, bigstockphoto.com
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. Know that every deed counts, that every word is power… Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art.
~ Abraham Joshua Heschel
Lotus Flowers – photo by photirung, bigstockphoto.com
This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don’t be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, because these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings.
~ Joanna Macy
El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, CA – photo by jeffbanke, bigstockphoto.com
Now when you cut a forest, an ancient forest in particular, you are not just removing a lot of big trees and a few birds fluttering around in the canopy. You are drastically imperiling a vast array of species within a few square miles of you. The number of these species may go to tens of thousands. … Many of them are still unknown to science, and science has not yet discovered the key role undoubtedly played in the maintenance of that ecosystem, as in the case of fungi, microorganisms, and many of the insects.
~ E. O. Wilson
Pine Forest – photo by makam69, bigstockphoto.com
When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it’s bottomless, that it doesn’t have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless.
~ Pema Chödrön
Sunrise, Portage Creek, Milham Park, Michigan – photo by dpennala, bigstockphoto.com
For the Lakota, kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky and water was a real and active principle. In the animal and bird world there existed a brotherly feeling that kept the Lakota safe among them.
The animals had rights—the right of human protection, the right to live, the right to multiply, the right to freedom, and the right to our indebtedness—and in recognition of these rights the Lakota never enslaved an animal and spared all life that was not needed for food and clothing.
This concept of life and its relations was humanizing and gave to the Lakota an abiding love. It filled their being with the joy and mystery of living; it gave them reverence for all life; it made a place for all things in the scheme of existence with equal importance to all. From Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, there came a great unifying life force that flowed in and through all things—the flowers of the plains, blowing winds, rocks, trees, birds, animals… Thus all things were kindred, and were brought together by the same Great Mystery.
~ Chief Luther Standing Bear
Raven in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah – photo by dmitry kushch, bigstockphoto.com
There is a quiet light that shines in every heart. It draws no attention to itself though it is always secretly there. It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty, our desire to seek possibility and our hearts to love life. Without this subtle quickening our days would be empty and wearisome, and no horizon would ever awaken our longing. Our passion for life is quietly sustained from somewhere in us that is wedded to the energy and excitement of life. This shy inner light is what enables us to recognize and receive our very presence here as blessing. We enter the world as strangers who all at once become heirs to a harvest of memory, spirit, and dream that has long preceded us and will now enfold, nourish, and sustain us.
~ John O’Donohue
Cave, Belize – photo by Kevin Wells Photography, bigstockphoto.com
…our bodies are a combination of human cells together with other microorganisms whom we host. We inhabit a system of nested relationships which are interconnected and interdependent. From this view the self is not a static or clearly defined “thing” but more a process.
~ Mary Jane Rust
Sea Sunset Beach, Caribbean – photoi by Danlin, bigstockphoto.com
Once we step outside of the illusion of our own separate self, a radically different picture emerges. Our true nature exists in a dimension of oneness. Unlike the ego, which always looks out for its own self-interest, the Self reflects a vision of unity, in which each individual part is nourished according to its real need. A glimpse of the Self gives us a sense of an interconnected oneness in which nothing is separate: everything is an expression of a oneness that is dynamically alive. Every person, every stone, is this oneness; everything is connected and interdependent. Our individual Self is the Universal Self and it is all a living organism of light and love.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Snow Season – photo by jaapbleijenberg, bigstockphoto.com
What if our religion was each other? If our practice was our life? If prayer, our words? What if the temple was the Earth? If forests were our church? If holy water, the rivers, lakes, and ocean? What if meditation was our relationships? If the teacher was life? If wisdom was self-knowledge? If love was the centre of our being?
~ Ganga White
Bohey Duland Island, Borneo – photo by Zulkiffle Mohd Kassim, bigstockphoto.com
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