Tag Archives: Animals

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Our Sacred Animals

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“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

 

“Don’t kill animals for glory, that makes you the worst kind of bully.”                                                                                                                     -Seth Kantner

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.  -Albert Schweitzer

“Our treatment of animals will one day be considered barbarous. There cannot be a perfect civilization until man realizes that the rights of every living creature are as sacred as his own.”                                                                                                                      -David Jordon

 

 

Sweet Breathing

Reflections on Autumn – A Gallery of Photos

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“Fall, the time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.”

-Lauren DeStefano

You can click onto any of the thumbnail photos for a full sized version, then use the arrows for a full sized slide show.

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”

-George Eliot

 

Sweet Breathing

Meditations on Summer – A Gallery of Photos

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(*You can click onto any individual image to see a full size version, and then click the right hand arrow to see all images in full size.)

“The summer night is like a perfection of thought.”

-Wallace Stevens

“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”

― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“Then followed that beautiful season… Summer….
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.”

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

 

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Sweet Breathing

These Trees

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Carmel at the Santa Lucia Preserve, an idyllic retreat among lichen dripping oaks, green slopes, vistas, birds, deer, and coyote. The alive ecosystem of the coastal environment is present in a vital way to this tired body.  Yesterday’s wedding already a fading memory. The Barn, the view of the mountains for the ceremony, the relaxed vibe, all a part of me now, but I’m present in this moment without reflection on yesterday.

It’s all about the trees here. The way they stand in artistic poses and profound presence. They are peace and calm.

And the quiet! It seems they are thinking deep thoughts, still becoming more. It is a vital pervading mood that permeates – introspective and wise.

I am out with the trees now. Sweet soft breeze. They receive what’s offered with such grace. Later there will be a wild wind and a hot sun, and they will provide respite for some winged ones. They will shelter dozing deer, and yawning coyotes. They will talk to their brethren and commune with the others. Later still they will enjoy a moon bath and stellar sparkling light on their leaves. Their roots will reach deeper into the earth and their crown to the heavens with their hearts wide open to all that is. These trees.

 

 

 

 

Sweet Breathing

One of Degree, Not of Kind

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“The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind.”

-Charles Darwin

big-bear-on-the-hill-looking-back-fall

Bears are not companions of men, but children of God, and His charity is broad enough for both. Yet bears are made of the same dust as we, and breathe the same winds and drink of the same waters. A bear’s days are warmed by the same sun, his dwellings are overdomed by the same blue sky, and his life turns and ebbs with heart-pulsings like ours and was poured from the same fountain…”
– John Muir

big-bear-sept-fall

Sweet Breathing

Silence

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“Not speaking and speaking are both human ways of being in the world, and there are kinds and grades of each. There is the dumb silence of slumber or apathy; the sober silence that goes with a solemn animal face; the fertile silence of awareness, pasturing the soul, whence emerge new thoughts; the alive silence of alert perception, ready to say, “This… this…”; the musical silence that accompanies absorbed activity; the silence of listening to another speak, catching the drift and helping him be clear; the noisy silence of resentment and self-recrimination, loud and subvocal speech but sullen to say it; baffled silence; the silence of peaceful accord with other persons or communion with the cosmos.”

-Paul Goodman

So many silences, a profound collection.  To these eloquent words of Goodman’s I would add,  the silence of being one with nature, and in awe of the beauty and connections …

Red Fox

 

Sweet Breathing

Revealing the Eternal

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“Respect the man of noble races other than your own, who carries out, in a different place, a combat parallel to yours — to ours.  He is your ally.  He is our ally, be he at the other end of the world. Love all living things whose humble task is not apposed in any way to yours, to ours:  men with simple hearts, honest, without vanity and malice,

Tiger's Nest, Prayer Flags, Bhutanese Man

and all the animals, because they are beautiful, without exception and with exception indifferent to whatever idea there may be. Love them, and you will see the eternal in the glance of their eyes of jet, amber, or emerald.

Red Fox

Love also the trees,

The Preserve, One Tree

the plants,

White Flowers

the water that runs through the meadow and on to the sea without knowing where it goes;

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love the mountain,

Glacier National Park, Long View, Stream, Mountain, Big Sky, Clouds

the desert,

Bryce, HooDoos6

the forest,

Summer Forest with Soft Light copy

 

the immense sky, full of light or full of clouds;  because all these exceed man and reveal the eternal to you”

-Savitri Devi

Rainbow Sky

 

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The One You Feed

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“An old Cherokee told his grandson, “My son, there is a battle between two wolves inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.  The other is  Good.  It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The boy thought about it, and asked, “Grandfather, which wolf wins?”

The old man quietly replied, “The one you feed.”

-A Cherokee Legend

Deer, Horns, Beautiful Light, The Preserve, PreWedding, Spring