There are so many other worlds. Sometimes when you hold special rocks, you can hear them.
~ Rainbow Wolf, age 6
Crystal Cave, Bermuda – photo by Devadana Sanctuary
Devadana Sanctuary
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Many of us humans (thankfully not all) have lived with the illusion that we are at the top of an evolutionary pyramid where we enjoy a position of being superior to other life forms on the planet. I think of this as a “humancentric” attitude. In Western cultures, we have been taught that we are separate in some fundamental way from the other life here on earth. How do we recognize and experience that all life forms are equal offspring of Gaia, that all express their particular and valued forms and qualities of consciousness, and that every life we encounter anywhere, anytime, is our earth-kin?
~ Nancy J. Napier
Deer in the Forest – photo by Sergei777, bigstockphoto.com
One of the most beautiful gifts in the world is the gift of encouragement. When someone encourages you, that person helps you over a threshold you might otherwise never have crossed on your own. There are times of great uncertainty in every life. Left alone at such a time, you feel dishevelment and confusion like gravity. When a friend comes with words of encouragement, a light and lightness visit you and you begin to find the stairs and the door out of the dark. The sense of encouragement you feel from the friend is not simply her words or gestures; it is rather her whole presence enfolding you and helping you find the concealed door. The encouraging presence manages to understand you and put herself in your shoes. There is no judgment but words of relief and release.
~ John O’Donohue
Sunrise, Arches National Park – photo by Melissa Kopka, bigstockphoto.com
Prayer of the Woods
I am the heat of your hearth on cold winter nights. The friendly shade screening you from the summer sun and my fruits are refreshing draughts quenching your thirst as you journey on.
I am the beam that holds your house, the board of your table, the bed on which you lie and the timber that builds your boat.
I am the handle of your hoe. The door of your homestead. The wood of your cradle and the shell of your coffin.
I am the bread of kindness and the flower of beauty. Ye who pass by. Listen to my Prayer: Harm me not.
~ Sign in Grayton Beach State Park, Florida
Sequoias – photo by PapaBear, bigstockphoto.com
In truth, we are all children of Nature, cosmic works of art. “You” and “I” are the Universe, taking human form for awhile. And so is every other person, cloud, river, butterfly, dog, flower, atom and tree. The Hindus celebrated this truth in the Upanishads, it’s what Zen and Taoism (and meditation) can bring us to, and now modern science points to this reality as well. We are all part of one magical and mysterious cosmic tapestry, and suffer from a case of mistaken identity, to think we are not…
~ Christopher Chase
Timber Wolf in Snow – photo by Josef Pittner, bigstockphoto.com
In a healthy society, caring for the soul of the world is primarily the work of true elders. These are the community members who have the greatest capacity to recognize and comprehend the needs and desires of the world, and to respond wisely. They are the ones who can best guide us by virtue of their capacity to be guided by the world. By listening to the soul of the world, true elders acquire the wisdom, scope, and perspective to assess the relationship between humanity and the larger web of life we’re part of—and to guide us in keeping that relationship in balance.
~ Geneen Marie Haugen
Garden of the Gods, Holy Ground, Colorado – photo by onewayphoto, bigstockphoto.com
A practice of gratitude is not about dismissing sadness, anger, fear, or confusion. Rather, it offers us the opportunity to see that we often experience multiple feelings at once; to welcome joy into the same places where we hold grief; to turn our attention to what is quietly growing and breathing day by day, which, to our possible surprise, includes ourselves.
~ Kristin Lin
Victoria Amazonica, Amazon Rain Forest, Peru – photo by jkraft5, bigstockphoto.com
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places–and there are so many–where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however a small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
~ Howard Zinn
Sunrise, Hunts Mesa, Monument Valley, AZ – photo by Bill45, bigstockphoto.com
Whether or not they contain the encapsulated wisdom of ages past, what is certain is that myths, fairy tales and folklore offer us a world imbued with participation mystique – a world in which humans are fully enmeshed. In this world, animals always have something to teach us, trees and plants can save or cure us, wise old men and women are waiting in the dark woods to help us, and a well may be a doorway to another world. Myths and folklore can put us back in touch with the seasons and turnings of the year, and they can restore our acceptance of the necessary cycles of life. They can also remind us that we have a responsibility to future generations, and to the planet as a whole. If we approach myth and story in non-human-centric ways, it places us more firmly into the wider life of the world: our personal story is enmeshed with a greater story of which we’re a part.
~ Sharon Blackie
Callinish Stones at Sunset, Lewis, Scotland – photo by stroop, bigstockphoto.com
We are a part of the sacred and it is a part of us—it belongs to our real nature. It is only the disconnection of our culture, its fundamental forgetfulness, that has isolated us within our own individual ego self, seemingly separate, struggling, unsupported by this basic energy and power within creation. Once we have learned to walk in a sacred manner, our feet touching the earth, we honor this connection that links our soul to the world soul, our breath to the breath of the spirit, that reveals our individual story as a part of the Earth’s story.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Evening Landscape, Carpathians, Ukraine – photo by Mr. Smith, bigstockphoto.com
You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.
~ Jane Goodall
Huangshan Mountains, China – photo by margoria, bigstockphoto.com
Have you allowed that familiar yet mysterious being we call plant to teach you its secrets?
Have you noticed how deeply peaceful it is?
How it is surrounded by a field of stillness?
The moment you become aware of a plant’s
emanation of stillness and peace, that plant becomes your teacher.
~ Eckhart Tolle
Costa Rica – photo by Devadana Sanctuary
Behind every atom of this world hides an infinite Universe.
~ Rumi
Milky Way and Tree – photo by denbelitsky, bigstockphoto.com
Kindness is like snow
it beautifies everything it covers.
~ Kahlil Gibran
Waterfall, Karkonosze Mountains, Poland – photo by Pav-Pro-Photography Ltd, bigstockphoto.com
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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. 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
American Bison, Yellowstone National Park – photo by Sue Smith, bigstockphoto.com
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