“I am never lost in the mountains, it is where I find myself”
-Lee Hiller
Tag Archives: Mountains
Mountains, Woods, Rivers, Lakes, Beaches – Find Me Inside
Mountains, Woods, Rivers, Lakes, Beaches….
This is the God or nature of Spinoza:
“God would have said:
Stop praying and punching yourself in the chest!What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life.I want you to enjoy, sing, have fun and enjoy everything I’ve made for you.Stop going to those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and say they are my house!My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. That’s where I live and there I express my love for you.Stop blaming me for your miserable life; I never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you were a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing!Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. So don’t blame me for everything they made you believe.Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. If you can’t read me in a sunrise, in a landscape, in the look of your friends, in your son’s eyes…you will find me in no book!Trust me and stop asking me. Will you tell me how to do my job?Stop being so scared of me. I do not judge you, I criticize you, nor get angry, or bother, or punishment. I am pure love.Stop asking for forgiveness, there’s nothing to forgive. If I made you… I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies… free will. How can I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? How can I punish you for being the way you are, if I’m the one who made you Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who behave badly for the rest of eternity?What kind of god can do that?Forget any kind of commandments, any kind of laws; those are wiles to manipulate you, to control you, that only create guilt in you.Respect your peers and don’t do what you don’t want for yourself. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life, that your alert is your guide.My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step, not a step in the way, not a rehearsal, nor a prelude to paradise. This life is the only thing here and now and all you need.I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues, no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record.You are absolutely free to create in your life heaven or hell.I could tell you if there’s anything after this life but I can give you a tip. Live as if there is no. As if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist.So, if there’s nothing, then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is, rest assured that I won’t ask if you behaved right or wrong, I’ll ask. Did you like it? Did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most? What did you learn?…Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. I don’t want you to believe in me, I want you to feel in you. I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved, when you tuck your little girl, when you caress your dog, when you bathe in the sea.Stop praising me, what kind of egomaniac God do you think I am?I’m bored being praised, I’m tired of being thanked. Feeling grateful? Prove it by taking care of you, your health, your relationships, the world. Feeling looked at, shocked?… Express your joy! That’s the way to praise me.Stop complicating things and repeating as a parakeet what you’ve been taught about me.The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, that this world is full of wonders.What do you need more miracles for? Why so many explanations?
look for me outside, you won’t find me. Find me inside… there I am beating on you.”-Spinoza
The Wisest Balm
“When the mind is festering with trouble or the heart torn, we can find healing among the silence of mountains or fields, or listen to the simple, steadying rhythm of waves. The slowness and stillness gradually takes us over. Our breathing deepens and our hearts calm and our hungers relent. When serenity is restored, new perspectives open to us and difficulty can begin to seem like an invitation to new growth.This invitation to friendship with nature does of course entail a willingness to be alone out there. Yet this aloneness is anything but lonely. Solitude gradually clarifies the heart until a true tranquility is reached. The irony is that at the heart of that aloneness you feel intimately connected with the world. Indeed, the beauty of nature is often the wisest balm for it gently relieves and releases the caged mind.”-John O’Donohue(from Beauty: The Invisible Embrace)
Magnetic Mountains
“Although I deeply love oceans, deserts and other wild landscapes, it is only mountains that beckon me with that sort of painful magnetic pull to walk deeper and deeper into their beauty. They keep me continuously wanting to know more, feel more, see more.”
-Victoria Erickson
Packing My Bags
“So I’m packing my bags for the misty mountains…”
-Led Zeppelin
Perfect Patience
“And I awake to the perfect patience of mountains.”
e. e. cummings
Everything Real
Sometimes you read something that resonates as if you had written it yourself! When I read this quote it was surely one of those times.
I think Victoria and I would get along famously!
*I’d have to add books and wine though!
“I just want to live in a world of mountains,
coffee, campfires, cabins and golden trees,
and run round with a camera and a notebook,
learning the inner workings of everything real.”
-Victoria Erickson
My living with coffee, campfires, cabins, golden trees, cameras and a notebook represented in photos below. Living the dream… (you can click onto any image for a full size version, then hit the arrow to see each image in turn).
The Wanderer
“Let yourself fall in love with nature. Visit new places and discover your own back yard. Spend more time outside watching sunrises and sunsets. Make time to star gaze. Stand barefoot in the beautiful earth and reconnect your soul. To the energy that created you. You are a part of a magnificent universe. Take the time to be present with it all. Allow nature to feed your soul. Those who wander will never feel lost.”
-Carly Marie
Visit new places
and discover your own back yard
Spend more time outside watching sunrises
and sunsets
Make time to star gaze
Stand barefoot on the beautiful earth. To the energy that created you. You are a part of a magnificent universe. Take the time to be present with it all. Allow nature to feed your soul. Those who wander will never feel lost.”
A Necessity of the Human Spirit
“Wilderness is not a luxury, but a necessity of the human spirit”
-Edward Abbey
“Thousands of tired nerve-shaken over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is gong home, that wilderness is a necessity”
-John Muir
Distance
“The distance lends enchantment to the view, and robes the mountain in its azure hue.”
-Thomas Campbell
