The world we are experiencing today is the result of our collective consciousness, and if we want a new world, each of us must take responsibility for helping create it.
~ Rosemary Fillmore
Awakening – photyo by EdVal, bigstockphoto.com
When I Am Among the Trees
When I am among the trees,especially the willows and the honey locust, equally the beech, the oaks and the pines, they give off such hints of gladness, I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself, in which I have goodness, and discernment, and never hurry through the world but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out, “Stay awhile.” The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,”and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.”
~ Mary Oliver
Giant Sequoia, Sequoia National Park – photo by Pung Pung, bigstockphoto.com
One of the fundamental demonstrations of our natural instinct to Bond with each other is a will to give. Rather than domination, our most basic urge is to reach out to another human being, even at a cost to ourselves. Giving to others—the urge to empathize, to be compassionate, and to help others altruistically—is not the exception to the rule, but our natural state of being. Our impulse to connect with each other has developed an automatic desire to do for others, even at personal cost. Altruism comes naturally to us. It is selfishness that is culturally conditioned and a sign of pathology.
~ Lynne McTaggart
Li River, China – photo by streetflash, bigstockphoto.com
And here lies the crux of the matter: to say that nature is personal may mean not so much seeing the world differently as acting differently—or, to state it another way, it may mean interacting with more-than-human others in nature as if those others had a life of their own and then coming to see, through experience, that these others are living, interacting beings.
~ Ursula K. LeGuin
Bird of Paradise – photo by Kagenmi, bigstockphoto.com
People who believe that everything is fundamentally one differ in crucial ways from those who do not. In general, those who hold a belief in oneness have a more inclusive identity that reflects their sense of connection with other people, nonhuman animals, and aspects of nature that are all thought to be part of the same “one thing.”
~ Scott Barry Kaufman
Winter Sunset – photo by Syntheticmessiah, bigstockphoto.com
The Universe is one indivisible, dynamic whole in which energy and matter are so deeply entangled it is impossible to consider them as independent elements…
What quantum physics teaches us is that everything we thought was physical is not physical.
~ Bruce H. Lipton
Northern Lights, Yukon Territory, Canada – photo by PiLens, bigstockphoto.com
When we can truly see and understand the earth, love is born in our hearts. We feel connected. That is the meaning of love: to be at one. Only when we’ve fallen back in love with the earth will our actions spring from reverence and the insight of our interconnectedness…the earth is always there for us, offering us everything we need for our nourishment and healing: the miraculous grain of corn, the refreshing stream, the fragrant forest, the majestic snow-capped mountain peak, and the joyful birdsong at dawn.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Sunrise, Three Sisters, Australia – photo by lovleah, bigstockphoto.com
Increasing numbers of researchers, in a multiplicity of fields, are beginning to acknowledge that intelligence is an inevitable aspect of all self-organized systems—that sophisticated neural networks are a hallmark of life. Some researchers are becoming quite vocal in attacking what they call the “brain chauvinism.” Kevin Warwick, a cyberneticist, observes succinctly that, “Comparisons (in intelligence) are usually made between characteristics that humans consider important; such a stance is of course biased and subjective in terms of the groups for whom it is being used.” In other words, rationalists, who have long attacked the concept of plant intelligence and consciousness and awareness in nature as antirational romantic projection, have themselves been merely looking at and for their own reflection in the world around them—and, of course, finding the world wanting. But what especially activates their antirational subjectivity is whenever the organism in question appears to not have a brain, such as with bacteria, viruses, and most especially plants.
~ Stephen Harrod Buhner
Plant and Fungi Earth-Kin, Netherlands – photo by Sinica Kover – bigstockphoto.com
Indigenous peoples across the globe have lived in harmony with their traditional lands for generations, living off the land and its resources while maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem itself. For indigenous peoples, sustainability is a necessity, for without it their own livelihoods are at risk. Traditional ecological knowledge and practices have been so successful that, although indigenous lands account for less than 22 percent of the world’s land area, their traditional territories are home to approximately 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity. This has led to a growing appreciation for the value of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in promoting sustainable land management and scientific discovery and in providing environmental data to support climate adaptation strategies.
~ Hannah Rundle
Canyon de Chelly, Navajo Nation, AZ – photo by Paul Brady, bigstockphoto.com
Love links us all together in the most mysterious ways, and love can guide our hearts and hands. The central note of love is oneness. Love speaks the language of oneness, of unity rather than separation.
~ Llewelyn Vaughan-Lee
Winter Magic – photo by Juhku, bigstockphoto.com
ALWAYS ASK PERMISSION
Before cutting a tree branch or taking a flower, let the spirit of the tree or plant know what you are going to do, so that it can draw its energy from that location and not feel the cut so hard.When you go to nature and want to take a stone from the river, ask the river keeper if he allows you to take one of his sacred stones.
If you have to climb a mountain or make a pilgrimage through the jungle, ask the local spirits and guardians for permission. It is very important that you communicate, even if you don’t feel, hear or see.
Enter each place with respect, because all of Nature listens to you, sees you and feels you. Every move you make in the microcosm has a big impact on the macrocosm.
As you approach the vegetation, be grateful for the medicine it has for you.
Honor life in its various forms and be aware that each being is fulfilling its purpose. Nothing was created to fill the spaces, we are all here remembering our mission, remembering who we are and waking up from the sacred dream of returning home!
~ Mark Nilson
Entrance to Okolehao Trail, Kauai, Hawaii – photo by BackyardProductios, bigstockphoto.com
For each act of hatred that makes the news, a dozen of acts of goodness go unseen in our world.
~ Bishop Desmond Tutu
Sunrise, Baltic Sea – photo by rissix, bigstockphoto.com
Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.
~ Arundhati Roy
Lake in Winter, Sweden – photo by Ysign, bigstockphoto.com
What if there were another system and jurisprudence, based upon the concept that the planet and all of its species have rights — and they have those rights by virtue of their existence as component members of a single Earth community?
~ Thomas Berry
Red Rock Cliffs, Zion National Park, UT – photo by eric1513, bigstockphoto.com
Whenever you come upon Water in its natural state, you approach it with respect; you introduce yourself to it. Take time to pay respect to it. For Water gives life, we live inside Water for nine months in our mother’s womb. Then we follow the Water into this world. It is sacred, we depend on Water for the rest of our life. Water is Life…
Allow for a moment of gratitude the next time you take a drink of Water. Then, hope will flicker within – hope that allows us to envision a way, a path towards a more compassionate and caring society that heeds the consciousness that Water is Life.
~ Mona Polacca, Havasupai/Hopi/Tewa Nations, ArizonaInternational Council of Thirteen Indigenous GrandmothersIndigenous World Forum on Water and Peace
Russel Falls, Mount Field National Park, Tasmania – photo by rodthebaker, bigstockphoto.com
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 93
- 94
- 95
- 96
- 97
- …
- 299
- Next Page »