The ancient human-Earth relationship must be recovered in a new context, in its mystical as well as in its physical functioning. There is need for awareness that the mountains and rivers and all living things, the sky and its sun and moon and clouds all constitute a healing, sustaining sacred presence for humans which they need as much for their psychic integrity as for their physical nourishment…
~ Thomas Berry
Lotus Blossom, Peace Pagoda, Leverett, MA – photo by Ange DiBenedetto
If we were to adopt a relational attitude, and interact with rivers, streams, trees, animals, soils and so on as if they are persons, our behaviours and actions would also necessarily be altered as a consequence.
~ Jack Hunter
Small Forest River – photo by pellinni, 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
African Elephant, Hwange National Park – photo by frenchp, bigstockphoto.com
All of our prophecies speak of this time: the time when the people of the world would begin waking up and unifying for the protection of life. As Indigenous people, we have been guided to carry the sacred teachings that allowed us to maintain our connected way of life, so that when this time came, we would be able to help guide humanity back to a more balanced way of being.
~ Sherri Mitchell, Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change
Teton National Park – photo by Sue Smith, bigstockphoto.com
What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses.
~ Bruce Lipton
New York City Summer – photo by Devadana Sanctuary
I have come into this world to see this: the sword drop from men’s hands even at the height of their arc of rage because we have finally realized there is just one flesh we can wound.
~ Hafiz
Tree People of Central Park – photo by Devadana Sanctuary
While humans and many other animals, for example, have a specific organ, the brain, which houses its neuronal tree, plants use the soil as the stratum for the neural net; they have no need for a specific organ to house their neuronal system. The numerous root apices act as one whole, synchronized, self-organized system, much as the neurons in our brains do. Our brain matter is, in fact, merely the soil that contains the neural net we use to process and store information. Plants consciously use the soil itself to house their neuronal nets. This allows the root system to continue to expand outward, adding new neural extensions for as long as the plant grows.
In addition, the leaf canopy also acts as a synchronized, self-organized perceptual organ, which is highly attuned to electromagnetic fields. It can be viewed, in fact, as a crucial subcortical portion of the plant brain.
~ Stephen Harrod Buhner
Coastal Main Botanical Gardens – photo by Devadana Sanctuary
We have to step out of our dream of separation, the insularity with which we have imprisoned ourselves, and acknowledge that we are a part of a multidimensional living spiritual being we call the world. The world is much more than just the physical world we perceive through the senses, just as we are much more than just our own physical bodies. Only as a part of a living whole can we help to heal the whole.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sunset, Serengeti National Park, Africa – photo by LuCaAr, bigstockphoto.com
when the world
goes mad
be wildly kind
to everyone
everyone
everyone
everyone
~ you can’t control
much
but you control how
you treat others
in these breaking news
heartbreaking times
when nothing feels
certain
let your raw kindness
be a certainty
allow your compassion
to become a North Star
stamped up in
the sky for
others to follow
back home
~ John Roedel
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens – photo by Devadana Sanctuary
For thousands of years it has been known that everything that exists in this world is alive and has a spirit.
We are connected to a web of life that reflects the impact of the behavior of all that is alive. We can speak to the spirit of the trees, plants, rocks, rivers, animals, birds, insects, and reptiles and perceive their divine nature. As everything that exists is alive, each being also recognizes the divine in us. The earth is alive and is a sacred being. It is time for us to align with the heartbeat of the earth.
~ Sandra Ingerman
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens – photo by Devadana Sanctuary
Not just beautiful, though—the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they’re watching me.
~ Haruki Murakami
Milky Way and Tree – photo by denbelitsky, bigstockphoto.com
This is what we can promise the future: a legacy of care. That we will be good stewards and not take too much or give back too little, that we will recognize wild nature for what it is, in all its magnificent and complex history – an unfathomable wealth that should be consciously saved, not ruthlessly spent. Privilege is what we inherit by our status as Homo sapiens living on this planet. This is the privilege of imagination. What we choose to do with our privilege as a species is up to each of us.
~ Terry Tempest Williams
Sunrise, Sedona, AZ – photo by diro, bigstockphoto.com
Oneness is very simple: everything is included and allowed to live according to its true nature.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Lotus Blossom – photo by Ange DiBenedetto
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
Elf Garden, Iceland – photo by Ragnhildur Jonsdottir
Let me make something beautiful today, Spirit, something beautiful with my life. Let me offer myself freely to you, to use as you will, holding back nothing, venturing everything, trusting in you with my whole heart. I do not know how many days I have to share what I can of goodness and kindness. I only know that if I am to pass on a blessing, now is the time to do it. This small span of years beneath the sun is an invitation, a chance, to make something beautiful from what I have around me, to be creative in how I care, to stretch the limit of my love, to climb to a higher place, to see the edges of what I have dreamed. Let me make something beautiful of my life, today, and every day, Spirit, something that will add beauty to your creation.
~ Steven Charleston
Alaskan Sunset – photo by Maria Horton Miller
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