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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 world is magic, not a little bit, one-hundred percent. Every atom, from one end of the cosmos to the other, is magic, magic, magic.
~ Terence McKenna
Skradinski buk Waterfall, Croatia – photo by Leonid Tit, bigstokphoto.com
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
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
Stacked Stones at Sunset – photo by itsajoop, bigstockphoto.com
We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the…assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it. We must learn to cooperate in its processes, and to yield to its limits. But even more important, we must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe. We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it.
~ Wendell Berry
Twin Falls Overlook at Sunset – photo by Kiteong, bigstockphoto.com
The whole of planet earth is a sacred site.
All people are the chosen people, and the purpose
of our lives is a spiritual one.
May we care for each other, and the earth,
for everything relates to everything else.
Feeling this oneness, may we radiate the light
of love and kindness that all may live in unity
and peace.
~ Radha Sahar
Double Rainbow, Long Island Sound – photo by Wendy Walker
The most important lesson I have learned in the fifty years I have spent working toward the building of a better world is that the true work of social transformation starts within. It begins inside your own heart and mind, because the battleground of human transformation is really, more than any other thing, the struggle within human consciousness to believe and accept what is true. Thus to truly revolutionize our society, we must first revolutionize ourselves. We must be the change we seek if we are to effectively demand transformation from others.
~ John Lewis
Sunrise in Kauai, Hawaii – photo by BackyardProductions, bigstockphoto.com
Diversity is the nature of evolution. Evolution has worked for billions of years to create biodiversity, cultural diversity, religious diversity, linguistic diversity and truth diversity. But now, in our mistaken view of the world, we are turning this diversity, which we should be celebrating, into divisions. And now we see each other as separate. When you create divisions you have a conflict. Conflict leads to wars, poverty and injustice. If we wish to reduce, or hopefully remove altogether, the possibilities of conflict, wars, poverty, exploitation, then we have to rise above these divisions which we have created in the world and celebrate our diversity.
~ Satish Kumar
Garrulus Glandarius, Deep Forest – photo by Michal Masik, bigstockphoto.com
Never forget that you are one of a kind. Never forget that if there weren’t any need for you in all your uniqueness to be on this earth, you wouldn’t be here in the first place. And never forget, no matter how overwhelming life’s challenges and problems seem to be, that one person can make a difference in the world. In fact, it is always because of one person that all the changes that matter in the world come about. So be that one person.
~ R. Buckminster Fuller
Sunset, Castle Valley, Near Moab UT – photo by Kris Wiktor, bigstockphoto.com
Today you have a choice. You can choose between anger and love, division and unity, frustration and hope, selfishness and giving, turning away or showing up. Choose kindness and the choice is simple. It’s hard to regret being kind.
~ Rachel Maria Martin
Beautiful Hibiscus Flower – photo by Anna F, bigstockphoto.com
For the Ojibwa the world is populated by persons ‘not all of whom are human.’…interactions with certain objects, as well as with features of the landscape must be understood as interactions between persons, or as relationships between persons, even if their intelligence is not outwardly expressed…
If a worldview holds open the possibility of communication with plants, animals, rocks and other features of the natural environment, then it may in turn facilitate just such communications.
~ Jack Hunter
Mor Hin Khau, Thailand Stonehenge – photo by noppasin wongchum, bigstockphoto.com
Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.
~ Hermann Hesse
Lotus – photo by Ange DiBenedetto
Never forget that you are one of a kind. Never forget that if there weren’t any need for you in all your uniqueness to be on this earth, you wouldn’t be here in the first place. And never forget, no matter how overwhelming life’s challenges and problems seem to be, that one person can make a difference in the world. In fact, it is always because of one person that all the changes that matter in the world come about. So be that one person.
~ R. Buckminster Fuller
Deep Jungle, Northern Thailand – photo by Quickshooting, bigstockphoto.com
We are stars wrapped in skin.
The light you are seeking has always been within.
~ Rumi
Starry Sky over Monument Valley – photo by lucky-photographer, bigstockphoto.com
Spirits are everywhere, and as we acknowledge their presence and honor and bless them—seeking counsel, support, and appropriate outcomes—we become more fully human; we help manifest the interconnectedness of everything; and we contribute to harmony, true being, and right action.
~ Claude Poncelet
Elf Garden – Iceland, photo by Ragnhildur Johnsdottir
