“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
Henry David Thoreau – Walden (1854)
As these summer days evolve, unfold, manifest the very essence and depth of life in radiant, brillant, big love, I am touching the ground with reverence, and looking around with eyes seeing abundance, with my heart feeling awe, breathing in my belonging. Thank you Jess Housty for expressing these feelings into words that resonate on this rain filled precious new Summer day.
“Go out into the world.
Stand or sit or hold your body like a precious thing: hold as much of your body as you can exchanging gentle touch with the ground.
When you look around yourself, name all the ways you see thriving mapped onto your surroundings.
Now, name all the ways that you map the abundance onto what’s around you.
You are intrinsic to the good work happening around you; breathe in your belonging; breathe out the question,
How can I build kinship and community in this moment?”
-Jess Housty (from Crushed Wild Mint: Poems (2023, Nightwood Editions)
“Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.”
-Robin Wall Kimmerer
“The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness”
-John Muir
“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!!
“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
“I didn’t need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.”
-Anne Lamott
there are placesplaces on earththat are magical.that no words canhope to describe.where your soulempty and drainedis restored.where the whispers of angelsshimmer through the treesas if on a mist.perfectly and peacefully.and gently floatingon the warm spring breeze.drifting weaving.falling on my facefilling me with grace.-Michael Traveler, from “Places”
“You carry Mother Earth within you, She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer. In that kind of relationship you have enough love, strength and awakening in order to change your life.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh
“The dream of my life is to lie down by a slow river and stare at the light in the trees—to learn something by being nothing a little while but the rich lens of attention.”—Mary Oliver, excerpt from Entering the Kingdom
