Category Archives: Nature

The New Quilt of Humanity

“The old threads are unraveling,

Get your needles ready.

We are stitching a new quilt
of Humanity.
Bring your old t-shirts,
worn out jeans, scarves,
antique gowns, aprons,
old pockets of plenty
who have held Earth’s treasures,
stones, feathers, leaves,
love notes on paper.
Each stitch
A mindful meditation.
Each piece of material
A story.
The more colour the better,
so call in the Tribes.
Threads of browns, whites,
reds, oranges
Women from all nations
start stitching.
Let’s recycle the hate, the abuse,
the fear, the judgment.
Turn it over, wash it clean,
ring it out to dry.
It’s a revolution
of recycled wears.
Threads of greens, blues, purples
Colourful threads
of peace, kindness,
respect, compassion
are being stitched
from one continent to the next
over forests, oceans, mountains.
The work is hard
Your fingers may bleed.
But each cloth stitched together
Brings together a community.
A world, our future world
Under one colourful quilt.
The new quilt of humanity.”
-Julia Myers

 

Heart Full of Quietness

“Begin the song exactly where you are.
Remain within the world of which you’re made.
Call nothing common in the earth or air.
Accept it all and let it be for good.
Start with the very breath you breathe in now,
This moment’s pulse, this rhythm in your blood
And listen to it, ringing soft and low.
Stay with the music, words will come in time.
Slow down your breathing. Keep it deep and slow.
Become an open singing bowl, whose chime
Is richness out of emptiness,
And timelessness resounding into time.
And when the heart is full of quietness
Begin the Song exactly where you are.”
-Malcolm Guite

You Are the Medicine

“Cure yourself, with the light of the sun and the rays of the moon. With the sound of the river and the waterfall.
With the swaying of the sea and the fluttering of birds.
Heal yourself, with the mint and mint leaves,
with neem and eucalyptus.
Sweeten yourself with lavender, rosemary, and chamomile.
Hug yourself with the cocoa bean and a touch of cinnamon. Put love in tea instead of sugar. And take it looking at the stars.
Heal yourself, with the kisses that the wind gives you and the hugs of the rain.
Get strong with bare feet on the ground
and with everything that is born from it.
Get smarter every day by listening to your intuition, looking at the world with the eye of your forehead.
Jump, dance, sing, so that you live happier.
Heal yourself, with beautiful love, and always remember …
you are the medicine.”
-Maria Sabina

Live In Fertile Soil

“In the rush to return to normal, use this time to consider which parts of normal are worth rushing back to.”

-Dave Hollis

“Live in fertile soil. Take in nutrients like your life depends on it. Breathe fresh air, in and out. Take a break from the rapids, surrender, and the current will either carry you or kick you out towards its gentle edges. Move away from depleting habitats. Leave a sedentary mind and body for the one that is waiting for you on the other side of this and any other present uncertainty. Your future gains certainty when you rise, like your voluntary breath, actively inspiring, consciously and unconsciously inhaling and exhaling.”

-Erika Putnam

Between Our Breaths

“Even in movement there is stillness                                                      If we would but awaken.

Between our breaths                                                                       breathing in and breathing out,                                                    Between the blinking of our eyes                                                        and the beating of our heart,

In that space,                                                                                                  as time begins falling into the timeless                                                We focus on that still point                                                                    and cross the threshold

Awareness rises.”

-Bob Holmes

 

One Wild and Precious Life

“We were not meant to live shallow lives, pocked by meaningless routines and the secondary satisfactions of happy hour. We are the inheritors of an amazing lineage, rippling with memories of life lived intimately with bison and gazelle, raven and the night sky.
We are designed to encounter this life with amazement and wonder, not resignation and endurance. This is at the very heart of our grief and sorrow.
The dream of full-throated living, woven into our very being, has often been forgotten and neglected, replaced by a societal fiction of productivity and material gain. No wonder we seek distractions.
Every sorrow we carry extends from the absence of what we require to stay engaged in this “one wild and precious life”.
-Francis Weller