If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
Staircase – Olympic National Park, photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
Daily Inspiration
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When we stop to assist a helpless beetle with a twig so it can turn over off its back and resume life, the entire universe knows it and responds.
~ Dr. David R Hawkins
Juvenile Downy Woodpecker – photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease.
~ John Muir
Photo by Zastrozzi Dh Photography, used with permission
It is especially important in this discussion to recognize the unity of the total process, from that first unimaginable moment of cosmic emergence through all its subsequent forms of expression until the present. This unbreakable bond of relatedness that makes of the whole a universe becomes increasingly apparent to scientific observation, although this bond ultimately escapes scientific formulation or understanding. In virtue of this relatedness, everything is intimately present to everything else in the universe. Nothing is completely itself without everything else. This relatedness is both spatial and temporal. However distant in space or time, the bond of unity is functionally there. The universe is a communion and a community. We ourselves are that communion become conscious of itself.
~ Thomas Berry
Kilauea, Hawaii – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
if you do know what is taught by plants and weather, you are in on the gossip and can feel truly at home. The sum of a field’s forces [become] what we call very loosely the ‘spirit of the place.’ To know the spirit of a place is to realize that you are a part of a part and that the whole is made or parts, each of which in a whole. You start with the part you are whole in.
~ Gary Snyder
Photo by Zastrozzi Dh Photography, used with permission
We are not these social and cultural roles we imagine ourselves to be. We are Life, in human form. Ancestors of the stars and galaxies. Creative expressions of Nature, as much a part of this planet as the rivers, trees, mountains and butterflies.
~ Christopher Chase
Tipsoo Lake, Mt. Rainier National Park – photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
“If you could really see that tree over there,” Merlin said, “you would be so astounded that you’d fall over.”
Really? But why? asked Arthur. “It’s just a tree.”
No, Merlin said, “It’s just a tree in your mind. To another mind it is an expression of infinite spirit and beauty. In God’s mind it is a dear child, sweeter than anything you can imagine.”
~ Deepak Chopra, “The Way of the Wizard”
Tree People of Central Park, photo by Devadana Sanctuary
What you encounter, recognize or discover depends to a large degree on the quality of your approach. Many of the ancient cultures practiced careful rituals of approach. An encounter of depth and spirit was preceded by careful preparation.
When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us. Our real life comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty in things. When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us. The rushed heart and arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to enter that embrace.
~ John ODonohue, “Beauty: The Invisible Embrace”
Rocks at Sunset, Garrapata Beach, CA – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
They can speak, trees. . .
But it takes special ears to hear them,
Ears that have listened to tender hearts
. . . with great care.
~Hafiz
The Mall, Central Park – photo courtesy of James Tomaszewski
Because of the interconnectedness of all minds, affirming a positive vision may be about the most sophisticated action any one of us can take.
North Cascades National Park – photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
The air that wraps Earth is a single entity, the matrix that holds us all. It is a global commons from which we draw a crucial element of life, sharing as we do molecules that have been breathed in and out of every living thing that has ever breathed on Earth. Molecules that pass through us have passed through brontosaurs, neolithic hunters, Roman emperors, hummingbirds, snails.
~ David Suzuki, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature
Twilight Moon, Canyonlands National Park, UT – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
~ Henry David Thoreau
Photo by Zastrozzi Dh Photography, used with permission
Trees are solar collectors. Most people equate that with the sun’s energy. But the sun is only one star, and there are billions of stars that influence the Earth with their radiation. I believe energies inside the earth are transmuted and transmitted into the cosmos by the trees, so the trees are like antennas, senders and receivers of earth energies and stellar energies.
~ David Milarch, “The Man Who Planted Trees”
Central Park Trees – photo by Devadana Sanctuary
Around us, life bursts with miracles–a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles.
~ Thích Nhat H?nh
Thor’s Well, Cape Perpetua, OR – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
The earth and myself are of one mind. The measure of the land and the measure of our bodies are the same.
~ Chief Joseph
Lower Glade Creek Falls, WV – photo by Jeff Burcher Photography, used with permission
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