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The law is that all life is equal in the Great Creation, and we, the Human Beings, are charged with the responsibility, each in our generation, to work for the continuation of life.
~ Traditional Circle of Elders
Great Blue Heron, photo by Marcel Pepin Photography – used with permission
It is true that many of the old ways have been lost.
But, just as the rains restore the earth after a drought,
so the power of the Great Mystery will restore the way
and give new life.
We ask that this happen not just for the Red People,
but for all people,
that they all might live.
In ignorance and carelessness they
have walked on Ina Maka, Our Mother.
They did not understand that they are part of all beings,
the Four-legged, the Winged, Grandfather Rock,
the Tree People, and our Star Brothers.
Now our Mother and all our Relations are crying out.
They cry for the help of all people.
~ Black Elk
Dawn Moonset, Dead Horse Point State Park, UT – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
There is a new story waiting to be born, waiting to redeem the planet and nourish our souls. It is a story of a oneness that includes the diversity of creation in a self-sustaining whole, a story that can bring back the magic within nature that is needed to heal our damaged planet. We can sense it in the re-emergence of the goddess Gaia, whose archetypal energy and numinosity speak to us of the world as a living being. Her image and the sense of an animate earth has re-entered western consciousness and acquired a life of its own.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Lower Gray Wolf River Trail – photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
People normally cut reality into compartments, and so are unable to see the interdependence of all phenomena. To see one in all and all in one is to break through the great barrier which narrows ones perception of reality.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Grey’s Arch, KY – photo by Fultz Fotos, used with permission
From a poem by John O’Donohue:
…May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams,
Possibilities and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.
May your soul calm, console and renew you.
~ John O’Donohue
Lower Gray Wolf River Trail, photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
Food for us comes from our relatives, whether they have wings or fins or roots. That is how we consider food. Food has a culture. It has a history. It has a story. It has relationships.
~ Winona LaDuke
Aspens and Pines, San Francisco Peaks, Northern AZ – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
Once I saw a chimpanzee gaze at a particularly beautiful sunset for a full 15 minutes, watching the changing colors [and then] retire to the forest without picking a pawpaw for supper.
~ Adriaan Kortlandt
Grand Canyon Sunset – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
The time has come to lower our voices, to cease imposing our mechanistic patterns on the biological processes of the earth, to resist the impulse to control, to command, to force, to oppress, and to begin quite humbly to follow the guidance of the larger community on which all life depends.
~ Thomas Berry
Storm Swells, Soberanes Cove, Garapatta State Park, Big Sur Coast, CA – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
Thanks for sharing these photos…
Today’s world may still at times make us feel lonely, but we can then remember what every animal, every insect, every plant knows and only we have forgotten: the living sacred whole.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Moonbow, Yosemite Valley – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
Every breath is a sacrament, an affirmation of our connection with all other living things, a renewal of our link with our ancestors and a contribution to generations yet to come. Our breath is a part of life’s breath, the ocean of air that envelopes the earth.
~ David Suzuki, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature
Half Dome Lightening, Yosemite – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries to comprehend only a little of this mystery every day.
~ Albert Einstein
Photo by Zastrozzi Dh Photography, used with permission
Thanks for sharing these photos…
We need to learn once again how to walk and breathe in a sacred universe, to feel this heartbeat of life. Hearing its presence speak to us, we feel this great bond of life that supports and nourishes us all.
~Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Ice Cone = Ash Cave Hills State Park, OH – photo by Fultz Fotos, used with permission
Wildness we might consider as the root of the authentic spontaneities of any being. It is that wellspring of creativity whence comes the instinctive activities that enable all living beings to obtain their food, to find shelter, to bring forth their young: to sing and dance and fly through the air and swim through the depths of the sea. This is the same inner tendency that evokes the insight of the poet, the skill of the artist and the power of the shaman.
~ Thomas Berry
River of Light, Grand Canyon – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
From a BBC World Service Inquiry Program:
Professor Stefano Mancuso runs the International Laboratory for Plant Neurobiology at the University of Florence. In an experiment with two climbing plants, they found that both competed for a single support when it was placed between them. The plant that didnt make it to the pole first immediately “sensed” the other plant had succeeded and started to find an alternative. “This was astonishing and it demonstrates the plants were aware of their physical environment and the behavior of the other plant. In animals we call this consciousness. We are convinced that plants are cognitive and intelligent.”
Aspen Grove, Lundy Canyon, Eastern Sierra, California – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
We are not here on Earth to be alone, but to be a part of a living community, a web of life in which all is sacred. Like the cells of our body, all of life is in constant communication, as science is just beginning to understand. No bird sings in isolation, no bud breaks open alone. And the most central note that is present in life is its sacred nature, something we need to each rediscover and honor anew.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Great Blue Heron – photo by Marcel Pepin Photography, used with permission
