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Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.
~ Rachel Carson
Calla Lily Grove – Garapatta Beach, CA – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
When we recognise the virtues, the talent, the beauty of Mother Earth, something is born in us, some kind of connection, love is born. We want to be connected. That is the meaning of love, to be at one. When you love someone you want to say I need you, I take refuge in you. You do anything for the benefit of the Earth and the Earth will do anything for your wellbeing.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Mt. Rainier – photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
The man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures, and acknowledging unity with the universe of things, was infusing into his being the true essence of civilization.
~ Luther Standing Bear
Flaming Dunes, Mesquite Flat Dunes, Death Valley – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
Darkness is the ancient womb. Nighttime is womb-time. Our souls come out to play. The darkness absolves everything; the struggle for identity and impression falls away. We rest in the night.
~ John O’Donohue
Tantalus Mountain at Sunset – photo by Marcel Pepin Photography, used with permission
We see quite clearly that what happens to the nonhuman happens to the human. What happens to the outer world happens to the inner world. If the outer world is diminished in its grandeur then the emotional, imaginative, intellectual, and spiritual life of the human is diminished or extinguished. Without the soaring birds, the great forests, the sounds and coloration of the insects, the free-flowing streams, the flowering fields, the sight of the clouds by day and the stars at night, we become impoverished in all that makes us human.
~ Thomas Berry
Dogwood Branch, Yosemite – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
When we use plants as medicine it is important not to just think of them as substances, but as people who are helping us. Being with the plants in this way is being in relationship with them. Not a relationship that is going to last five minutes, but a lifetime of relationship with the plant nation, the plant people. We all are capable of knowing the plants intimately and learning from them how to use their medicines.
~ Doug Simons
Spring Hills and Lupine at Dusk, De Anza Trail, Gabilan Mountains, Southern Santa Clara Valley, CA – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
The universe is seen as a dynamic web of interrelated events. None of the properties of any part of this web is fundamental; they all follow from the properties of the other parts, and the overall consistency of their mutual interrelations determines the structure of the entire web.
~ Fritjof Capra
Cobweb – photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
The present urgency is to begin thinking within the context of the whole planet, the integral earth community with all its human and other-than-human components.
~ Thomas Berry
Great Blue Heron, Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC – photo by Marcel Pepin Photography, used with permission
Meaning is what calls from the depths of the soul. It is the song that sings us into life. Whether we have a meaningful life depends upon whether we can hear this song, this primal music of the sacred. The “sacred” is not something primarily religious or even spiritual. It is not a quality we need to learn or to develop. It belongs to the primary nature of all that is. When our ancestors knew that everything they could see was sacred, this was not something taught but instinctively known. It was as natural as sunlight, as necessary as breathing. It is a fundamental recognition of the wonder, beauty and divine nature of the world. And from this sense of the sacred, real meaning is born, the meaning that makes our hearts sing with the deepest purpose of being alive.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, “Meaning and The Song of The Soul”
Oak and Rising Sun – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
We, in the modern world, are learning to respect our body, live in our body as “home.”
We are learning to “see” the environment as ourselves. We are learning the reality of the total interconnection and unity of life and energy despite the multiplicity and forms of manifestation.
We can help this learning process along in all kinds of ways. For instance: if we stop using the word environment, we would stop reinforcing the idea that it is something outside ourselves.
~ Dr. Barry Taylor
Princess Arch – photo by Fultz Fotos, used with permission
The earth is a living thing. Mountains speak, trees sing, lakes can think, pebbles have a soul, rocks have power.
~ Henry Crow Dog
Albert Falls, WV – photo by Jeff Burcher Photography, used with permission
We live in harmony with nature. We are guests: we are temporary. We respect nature: the grasses, trees, rivers, and lakes. We see everything as living: seeing and feeling. When a hunter goes into the forest, he asks forgiveness. He asks for pardon from the master spirits and makes an offering. He gives the most delicious pieces of meat to the spirit of this place and thanks the master spirit of nature.
~ Nadia Duvan
Panther Creek Falls, WA – photo by Chris Williams Exploration Photography, used with permission
A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sunrise – photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
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
Moonset and Dawn Sky, Soberanes Point, Garrapata State Park, Big Sur Coast, CA – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
The universe itself is the primary sacred community. All human religion should be considered as participation in the religious aspect of the universe itself. It is false to say that humanity is the most excellent being in the universe. The most excellent being in the universe is the universe itself.
~ Thomas Berry
Snake River Overlook, Grand Tetons – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
