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A Buddhist blessing for food:
We receive this food in gratitude to all beings
Who have helped to bring it to our table,
And vow to respond in turn to those in need
With wisdom and compassion.
Emerald Pool, Elves Chasm, Grand Canyon – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
May the sun bring you new energy by day,
may the moon softly restore you by night,
may the rain wash away your worries,
may the breeze blow new strength into your being,
may you walk gently through the world and
know it’s beauty all the days of your life.
~ Apache Blessing
Full Moon Rise Over Yuccas, White Sands National Monument, NM – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
The forest is not merely an expression or representation of sacredness, nor a place to invoke the sacred; the forest is sacredness itself Whoever moves within the forest can partake directly of sacredness, experience sacredness with his entire body, breath sacredness and contain it within himself, drink the sacred water as a living communion, bury his feet in sacredness, open his eyes and witness the burning beauty of sacredness.
~ Richard Nelson
Photo courtesy of Pedro Terrinha, used with permission
I’m taking off on my own two feet. I’m going to clear my head…to listen to trees and silence, to see if I can still breathe…
I’m going to be alone with myself, to feel how it feels to embrace what my feet tell my head, what wind says in my good ear.
~ Philip Booth
Steep Creek Falls, Skamania County, Gifford Pinchot National Forest – photo by Sandy’s NW Hiking Photos, used with permission
The deeper we look into nature, the more we recognize that it is full of life, and the more profoundly we know that all life is a secret and that we are united with all life that is in nature. Man can no longer live his life for himself alone. We realize that all life is valuable and that we are united to all this life. From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship with the universe.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Silver Star Mountain Trail – photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
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. We all have within us a sense of the sacred, a sense of reverence, however we may articulate it. It is a part of our human DNA. We each need to find this key within us. What does it mean for something to be sacred, what feeling does this evoke? How do we recognize the quality of the sacred, and how do we then respond?
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sunrise at Queen’s Bath, Hawaii – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable energy for life.
~ Tom Brown, Jr., Tracker
Rufous Hummingbird – photo by TAO Photography used with permission
The Middle
Wherever we are, you and I, …wherever we sit or stand right now, we are in the middle. The middle of the vastness of this Universe. Right now. It is projecting out from within us, from that middle place inside us all, that center place where Great Spirit dwells. Everything moves out from there. As we Walk it moves with us, it resides deep inside. When we pause for a moment, when we stand still and let the Vibration of the Hummingbird’s wings or the Silence from the wings of Butterfly enter our Middle, it connects us to the middle of All, the Center of all that is. …and in that moment we experience the most infinite power, the gentlest Peace, and the greatest love all in that one moment, right now, in the middle.
~ redskyhawk From Walking the Earth Touching the Sky Facebook Page
Artist Point, Mt. Baker – photo by Mirwais Azami Photography, used with permission
Wildness is…everywhere: ineradicable populations of fungi, moss, molds, yeasts, and such, that surround and inhabit us. Deer mice on the back porch, deer bounding across the freeway, pigeons in the park. Spiders in the corner.
~ Gary Snyder
Yosemite High Country – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
Because they are primeval, because they outlive us, because they are fixed, trees seem to emanate a sense of permanence. And though rooted in earth, they seem to touch the sky. For these reasons it is natural to feel we might learn wisdom from them, to haunt about them with the idea that if we could only read their silent riddle rightly we should learn some secret vital to our own lives; or even, more specifically, some secret vital to our real, our lasting and spiritual existence.
~ Kim Taplin, Tongues in Trees
Giant Sequoias, photo by Devadana Sanctuary
The arch of sky and mightiness of storms
Have moved the spirit within me,
Till I am carried away
Trembling with joy.
~ Uvavnuk, Inuit shaman
Grand Canyon – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.
~ Edwin Hubbell Chapin
Snow Lake, Mt. Rainier National Park – photo by Sandy’s NW Hiking Photos, used with permission
The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of its scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.
~Therese of Lisieux
Photo by Elizabeth Lehmann, used with permission
The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it, and to foster its renewal, is our only hope.
When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my childrens life may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
~ Wendell Berry
Wildflowers and Bishop Creek, Eastern Sierra, CA – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
Nature is a unity in diversity…a harmony, blending together all created things…one great whole animated by the breath of life.
~ Alexander von Humboldt
Light Fantastic – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
