Category Archives: Nature

Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing

Pray Alone, Pray Often

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This list, this code, has been in my library for a long while. I go back. to it often. I’m sorry that I don’t know the origin – the author – it is attributed to The Lakota.  The code is beautiful, profound, deep and clear. I honor the author, the Native Nation of the Lakota, and the wisdom expressed here.

CODE OF ETHICS


1. Rise with the sun to pray. Pray alone. Pray often. The Great Spirit will listen, if you only speak.

2. Be tolerant of those who are lost on their path. Ignorance, conceit, anger, jealousy – and greed stem from a lost soul. Pray that they will find guidance.

3. Search for yourself, by yourself. Do not allow others to make your path for you. It is your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.

4. Treat the guests in your home with much consideration. Serve them the best food, give them the best bed and treat them with respect and honor.

5. Do not take what is not yours whether from a person, a community, the wilderness or from a culture. It was not earned nor given. It is not yours.

6. Respect all things that are placed upon this earth – whether it be people or plant.

7. Honor other people’s thoughts, wishes and words. Never interrupt another or mock or rudely mimic them. Allow each person the right to personal expression.

8. Never speak of others in a bad way. The negative energy that you put out into the universe will multiply when it returns to you.

9. All persons make mistakes. And all mistakes can be forgiven.

10. Bad thoughts cause illness of the mind, body and spirit. Practice optimism.

11. Nature is not FOR us, it is a PART of us. They are part of your worldly family.

12. Children are the seeds of our future. Plant love in their hearts and water them with wisdom and life’s lessons. When they are grown, give them space to grow.

13. Avoid hurting the hearts of others. The poison of your pain will return to you.

14. Be truthful at all times. Honesty is the test of ones will within this universe.

15. Keep yourself balanced. Your Mental self, Spiritual self, Emotional self, and Physical self – all need to be strong, pure and healthy. Work out the body to strengthen the mind. Grow rich in spirit to cure emotional ails.

16. Make conscious decisions as to who you will be and how you will react. Be responsible for your own actions.

17. Respect the privacy and personal space of others. Do not touch the personal property of others – especially sacred and religious objects. This is forbidden.

18. Be true to yourself first. You cannot nurture and help others if you cannot nurture and help yourself first.

19. Respect others religious beliefs. Do not force your belief on others.

20. Share your good fortune with others.

Home, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing

Nature Remains

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“the bracing and buoyant equilibrium of concrete outdoor Nature, the only permanent reliance for sanity of book or human life.”

-Walt Whitman

“The trick is, I find, to tone your wants and tastes low down enough, and make much of negatives, and of mere daylight and the skies…  After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, love, and so on — have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear — what remains? Nature remains; to bring out from their torpid recesses, the affinities of a man or woman with the open air, the trees, fields, the changes of seasons — the sun by day and the stars of heaven by night.”

-Walt Whitman

Animals, Home, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing, Trees

Being Present to My Life (Questioning My Answers)

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“I’m busy;
but not in the way
most people accept.
I’m busy calming my fear
and finding my courage.
I’m busy listening to my kids.
I’m busy getting in touch
with what is real.
I’m busy growing things and
connecting with the natural world.
I’m busy questioning my answers.
I’m busy being present in my life.”
 
— Brooke Hampton

 

Glacier National Park, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing

A Holy Curiosity

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“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

Glacier National Park, Home, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing, Trees

As If On a Mist

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there are places
places on earth
that are magical
.
that no words can
hope to describe
.
where your soul
empty and drained
is restored
.
where the whispers of angels
shimmer through the trees
as if on a mist
.
perfectly and peacefully
.
and gently floating
on the warm spring breeze
.
drifting weaving
.
falling on my face
filling me with grace
.
-Michael Traveler, from “Places”