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This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.
~ John Muir
Sunrise – photo by Roxana_ro, bigstockphtoo.com
I believe with all my heart that we can create cities and towns that are functioning like a forest. The blueprint is here. How to really thrive on this planet is all around us. So it is with humility that we need to actually ask nature, what should we be doing? And then, with equal humility, start to apply that. We are capable of so much more as a species and we will be so much happier as a species as a result.
~ Sue Swain, BioWise Solutions
Redwood Forest, Sequoia National Park, CA – photo by nstanev, bigstockphoto.com
You do not belong to you. You belong to the universe. The significance of you will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume you are fulfilling your significance if you apply yourself to converting all your experience to highest advantage to others. Make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or to the disadvantage to anyone.
~ R. Buckminster Fuller
Bryce Canyon Hoodoos – photo by Maxim Kabb, bigstockphoto.com
From the standpoint of daily life…there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other—above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.
~ Albert Einstein
Rainforest Sunrise – photo by Mihailo K, bigstockpphoto.com
The salt of the sea is in our blood; the calcium of the rocks is in our bones; the genes of ten thousand generations of stalwart progenitors are in our cells. The sun shines and we smile. The winds rage and we bend before them. The blossoms open and we rejoice. Earth is our long home.
~ Stewart W. Holmes
Adriatic Sea, Dalmatia, Croatia – photo by AnnaElizabeth photography bigstockphoto.com
There are also all the subtle realms. For some extraordinary reason, we as a culture have dismissed, forgotten rejected. And yet they belong to all of the different spiritual traditions—the shaman who works with the spirit world, the Tibetan Buddhist who works with deities, devas, and the land, or the Christian monk who prays to angels and icons of the saints, and even the Zen monk immersed in the Void in this realm.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Interview with David Nicole
Sunlit Meadow – photo by Alex Ugalek, bigstockphoto.com
if awareness is not the exclusive attribute of humankind—if, indeed, every aspect of the perceivable world is felt to be at least potentially alive, awake and aware—then there is an obvious need, in any human community, for individuals who are particularly adept at communicating with these other shapes of sensitivity and sentience. The shamans are precisely those persons who are especially sensitive and susceptible to the expressive calls, gestures and signs of the wider, more-than-human field of beings, and who are able to reply in kind.
~ David Abram
Summer Sunset, New Zealand Cliffs – photo by kavram, bigstockphoto.com
I know nature speaks to us if we listen. Every animal has a story to tell. Every flower blossoms with reminders to be creative, and every tree whispers with its rustling leaves the secrets of life.
~ Ted Andrews, “Animal Speak”
Svaneti, Georgian Mountains – photo by Dzmitrock, bigstockphoto.com
Our challenge is to create a new language, even a new sense of what it is to be human. It is to transcend not only national limitations, but even our species isolation, to enter into the larger community of living species. This brings about a completely new sense of reality and value.
~ Thomas Berry
Sri Lankan Leopards – photo by sonnydaez, bigstockphoto.com
One of the most important contributions of the ecological movement is that it has made us conscious of the interdependence of all forms of life, the delicate web of creation…Nor do we realize the degree to which our intention, our attitude, our individual participation can affect the life of the whole and the way the future will unfold.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Green Aspen Grove – photo by dgphotography, bigstockphoto.com
If awareness is not the exclusive attribute of humankind—if, indeed, every aspect of the perceivable world is felt to be at least potentially alive, awake and aware — then there is an obvious need, in any human community, for individuals who are particularly adept at communicating with these other shapes of sensitivity and sentience. The shamans are precisely those persons who are especially sensitive and susceptible to the expressive calls, gestures and signs of the wider, more-than-human field of beings, and who are able to reply in kind.
~ David Abram
Upper Antelope Anyon, AZ – photo by vichie81, bigstockphoto.com
We get so absorbed by this negativity and hopelessness that we forget that billions of people are in love, nurturing their children, helping their neighbours, rescuing strangers, caring for animals, nurturing plants and restoring ecosystems, saving lives, delighting their communities through art, dance and poetry, celebrating the beauty of life and contributing to the thriving of their communities..
~ Daniel Christian Wahl
Mountain Lake Sunset, Slovakia – photo by Romija, bigstockphoto.com
Standing alone on a mountain top, it is easy to realize that whatever special nests we make–leaves and moss like the marmots and birds, or tents of piled stone–we all dwell in a house of one room…
~ John Muir
Lake of Mountain Spirits, Park Ergaki, Siberia, Russia – photo by Evgenly Ivanov, bigstockphoto.com
Not just beautiful, though—the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they’re watching me.
~ Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
Milky Way – photo by Den Belitsky, bigstockphoto.com
We have to have a new understanding that Earth and Nature are alive, they are intelligent, they have consciousness and they sustain life. We have to embrace this new paradigm if we want to live in harmony and in reverence of Nature.
~ Satish Kumar
Seljalandsfoss Waterfall, Iceland, 1AM Sunset – photo by Fyletto, bigstockphoto.com
