The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Nature
No single thing abides; but all things flow.
~ Lucretius (c. 99-55 B.C.E., Roman Poet)
… the love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need — if only we had the eyes to see. Original sin, the true original sin, is the blind destruction for the sake of greed of this natural paradise which lies all around us — if only we were worthy of it… No, wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.
~ Edward Abbey (1927-1929), American writer
From my earliest youth, I have known that while one is obliged to plan with care the stage of one’s journey, one is entitled to dream, and keep dreaming, of its destination.
~ Shimon Peres
Praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind. To be happy, rest like a giant tree, in the midst of them all.
~ The Buddha
To seek the living manifestation of spiritual and ethical values themselves, regardless of the label they come under, is to discover unexpected kinship… In this view, faith is no longer a matter of an allegiance to a specific community or identity, but a ceaseless search for the beautiful ways to realize the human potential in every given age and place.
~ Mohja Kahf
(Everlasting Pea growing beside a granite boulder.)
The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
(Fishing the Colorado River.)
Fishing provides that connection with the whole living world. It gives you the opportunity of being totally immersed, turning back into yourself in a good way. A form of meditation, some form of communion with levels of yourself that are deeper than the ordinary self.
~ Ted Hughes
Journeys bring power and love
Back into you. If you can’t go somewhere,
Move in the passageways of the self.
They are like shafts of light,
Always changing, and you change
When you explore them.~ Rumi
You whole past was but a birth and a becoming.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Bountiful Healing 