Simple kindness to one’s self and all that lives is the most powerful transformational force of all.
~ David R. Hawkins
Tropical Butterfly – photo by Jag_cz, bigstockphoto.com
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Empirical studies have begun to demonstrate that many people in advanced industrial cultures resonate deeply with what could be called nature spirituality or nature religion. Some of these people view the world as full of spiritual intelligences with whom one can be in relationship…while others among them perceive the earth to be alive or even divine.
~ Bron Taylor
Redwood National Park, CA – photo by pmphoto, bigstockphoto.com
I would say that there exist a thousand unbreakable links between each of us and everything else, and that our dignity and our chances are one. The farthest star and the mud at our feet are a family; and there is no decency or sense in honoring one thing, or a few things, and then closing the list. The pine tree, the leopard, the Platte River, and ourselves—we are at risk together, or we are on our way to a sustainable world together. We are each other’s destiny.
~ Mary Oliver
Summer Lotus – photo by Peggy Braun
From the animist point of view, humans belong in a sacred place because they themselves are sacred. Not sacred in a special way, not more sacred than anything else, but merely as sacred as anything else—as sacred as bison or salmon or crows or crickets or bears or sunflowers.
~ Daniel Quinn
Farmer with Buffalo in the Wild – photo by sufpond somnam, bigstockphoto.com
There is a kindness that dwells deep down in things; it presides everywhere, often in the places we least expect. The world can be harsh and negative, but if we remain generous and patient, kindness inevitably reveals itself. Something deep in the human soul seems to depend on the presence of kindness; something instinctive in us expects it, and once we sense it we are able to trust and open ourselves.
~ John O’Donohue
Lotus Flowers – photo by photirung, bigstockphoto.com
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
Hoodoos, Bryce Canyon National Park, UT – photo by Bill45, bigstockphoto.com
We talk often about the ripple effects of kind acts. Science is now confirming that kindness is actually contagious because seeing others perform acts of kindness elicits a natural neurochemical response within us which makes us act more altruistically towards others. This phenomenon is called “moral elevation”. Even watching acts of kindness can improve pathways in our brain!
~ KindSpring.org
Lotus – photo by Ange DiBenedetto
The atoms of our bodies are traceable to stars that manufactured them in their cores and exploded these enriched ingredients across our galaxy, billions of years ago. For this reason, we are biologically connected to every other living thing in the world. We are chemically connected to all molecules on Earth. And we are atomically connected to all atoms in the universe. We are not figuratively, but literally stardust.
~ Neil deGrasse Tyson
Milky Way, Himalayas – photo by denbelitsky, bigstockphoto.com