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The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.
~ Black Elk
Monument Valley – photo by fullempty, bigstockphoto.com
Gratefulness is a touchstone, offering us what we need not simply to survive difficult times but to appreciate them for their exquisite complexity, buried blessings, rich opportunities, and deep teachings.
~ Kristi Nelson
Double Rainbow, Glacier National Park – photo by Larry Knupp, bigstockphoto.com
I’ve always been impressed that we are here, surviving, because of the indomitable courage of quite small people against impossible odds.
~ J.R.R. Tolkien
Sunrise, Torres del Paine National Park, Chile – photo by Mikhail Dudarev, bigstockphoto.com
In Shamanic tradition respect for all spiritual beings that inhabit the earth moves well beyond animal forms. Shamans believe that plants are also sentient and that they can speak to us—they call to us, if we listen. By listening to plants Shamans have intuited the kinds of plant medicine that can heal on mind, body and spirit levels.
~ Naturesheart.org
Green Forest – photo by Yastremska, bigstockphoto.com
The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time.
~ Terry Tempest Williams
Summer Lotus – photo by Ange DiBenedetto
Let’s keep pouring light into each other, into all things and all situations. At a time where change is all around us and we are not sure what we can do, simply pour light in. Love wins.
~ Earthschool Harmony
Golden Sunrise Over the Sea – photo by vladimircanribb, bigstockphoto.com
An updated worldview is called for that places life as we know it as in, among and inseparable from Earth itself. Humans, for instance, do not live “on” the planet, they are the planet. The terms animate and inanimate no longer serve when we view earth as a living entity. Following on, planetary psychology accepts that earth as a living planet is conscious and accepts the responsibility to investigate just how human and other than human beings share in that one consciousness.
~ David J. Chalmers
Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Canada – photo by lucky-photographer, bigstockphoto.com
Behind every atom of this world hides an infinite Universe.
~ Rumi
Sunset, Kaanapali Beach, Maui, Hawaii – photo by Bob Colvin
We are all linked by a fabric of unseen connections. This fabric is constantly changing and evolving. This field is directly structured and influenced by our behavior and by our understanding.
~ David Bohm
Iguazu Falls – photo by dabldy, bigstockphoto.com
…when we place our emphasis and consciousness on the soul of the world, we’re embracing the world as something sacred, as something that has its own essence, its own purpose and destiny that might very well be different, bigger, and more mysterious than anything we suspect or anything we could understand.
~ Geneen Marie Haugen
Bialowieza Forest, Poland – photo by Aleksander, bigstockphoto.com
Our quest, our earth walk is to look within to know who we are, to see that we are connected to all things, that there is no separation, only in the mind.
~ Lakota Seer
Arches National Park, Utah – photo by Radomir Rezny, bigstockphoto.com
“You know why trees smell the way they do?“ Murphy asked, looking up from her hammering. “Sap?” Logan guessed. “Chlorophyll?” Murphy shook her head. “Stars. Trees breathe in starlight year after year, and it goes deep into their bones. So when you cut a tree open, you smell a hundred years’ worth of light. Ancient starlight that took millions of years to reach earth. That’s why trees smell so beautiful and old.”
~ Frances O’Roark Dowell
Summer Night Sky and Trees, Crimea – photo by denbelitsky, bigstockphoto.com
Can we not also speak to these powers [of animals, trees, all aspects of nature], and listen for their replies? Can we not cry out to the winds, whisper to the river and the deer, offer our tears to a tree, challenge the mountain with our questions? Outrageous as it may seem, such animistic (or participatory) modes of discourse are simply necessary, I believe, if we wish to really enact a respectful relation to these other beings, to remember the wild alterity of the waters, the winds, and the breathing land itself. If, finally, we wish to ensure an ethic of restraint in our human engagements with the more-than-human earth.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Giraffe in South Africa. photo by Chris Kruger, bigstockphoto.com
Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place.
~ Rumi
Sunrise at Hvitserkur, Iceland – photo by jojjik, bigstockphoto.com
One of the greatest sovereign powers that we all wield as human beings, although often unknowingly or without awareness, is the power of choosing where to place our attention.
~ Paul Levy
Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia – photo by flocu, bigstockphoto.com
