“When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.”
-Buddha 
Laugh at the Sky
Giving Voice to Astonishment
“So, all of you lovers of wild nature, keep going outside, even when it’s cold. Notice the way ice cracks in the sun. Notice the burst of red when a cardinal visits your bird feeder. Notice how cold air reminds you to how it feels to be alive, even when it isn’t comfortable. Build your capacity for attentiveness, and practice paying attention, and then give voice to the bits of astonishment that gather in the wake of doing so. Be attentive to the way winter polishes the moon, and give in to wonder. Because the world needs us to keep wonder alive.”
—Heidi Barr
I have Pretty, EVERYTHING
“Pretty flowers,
Pretty shells.
I have pretty…
EVERYTHING!
Look at your toes
they have blue polish.
Look at the trees,
They have purple leaves.”
Jules Walkup, Age 5
Happy Birthday Sweet Jules!!
Falling, Falling…
“Falling, falling, falling now… Waterfall music.”
-Matsuo Basho
Being Present to My Life (Questioning My Answers)
“I’m busy;but not in the waymost people accept.I’m busy calming my fearand finding my courage.I’m busy listening to my kids.I’m busy getting in touchwith what is real.I’m busy growing things andconnecting with the natural world.I’m busy questioning my answers.I’m busy being present in my life.”— Brooke Hampton
Nature is Imagination Itself
“…and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.”
-William Blake
Soft Starlight
“And a softness came from the starlight and filled me full to the bone.”
-William Butler Yeats
A Holy Curiosity
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reasons for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.”
Albert Einstein
“In the next twenty centuries…humanity may begin to understand its most baffling mystery—where are we going? The earth is, in fact, traveling many thousands of miles per hour in the direction of the constellation Hercules—to some unknown destination in the cosmos. Man must understand his universe in order to understand his destiny.
Mystery, however, is a very necessary ingredient in our lives…Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis for man’s desire to understand. Who knows what mysteries will be solved in our lifetime, and what new riddles will become the challenge of the new generation? Science has not mastered prophesy. We predict too much for the next year yet far too little for the next ten. Responding to challenges is one of democracy’s great strengths. Our successes in space can be sued in the next decade in the solution of many of our planet’s problems.”
Neil Armstrong
The Wildest & Wisest
“Ten times a day something happens to me like this –
some strengthening throb of amazement – some good sweet empathic ping and swell.
This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know:
that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness.”
-Mary Oliver
Own All of It
Own It~
“Own the fact that you are different
Own that you are a deep feeler and thinker
Own that you’re tuned into a different frequency
Own the fact that you sense things others don’t
Own the fact that you want to talk about angels,
energy, miracles and spirituality
Own that you’re done having meaningless conversations
Own that you’re done holding yourself back
Own that you crave freedom to feel the now
It’s ok if your family don’t get you.
It’s ok if your friends don’t join you
It’s ok if the world judges you
It’s ok that you want to dance barefoot upon the earth
and endlessly gaze at the stars
It’s ok that you cry over sunsets and chase moonbeams
It’s wonderful in fact. It’s beautiful
You have come a long way to be who you are
So own it. Own all of it. Love all of you
The world needs you to be exactly as you are
You hold the balance in this crazy world”– Eryka Stanton
Sunsets
& Moonbeams
