“Here is calm so deep, grasses cease waving. . . .
Wonderful how completely everything in wild nature
fits into us, as if truly part and parent of us.
The sun shines not on us but in us.
The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling,
vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies,
making them glide and sing.
The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as
our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous
storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our
song, our very own, and sings our love.”
John Muir
Tag Archives: Nature
The Gift of the Trees
Out here in the woods, the tree dance brings a welcome, hearty, and ever changing song.
Season to season they stand in place and in witness of all of life’s wonder – a constant teaching.
“A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. -John Muir
“Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive. When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again. When men reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Every Time I’m in the Woods
“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”
― Mary Oliver
Animal Wonders – A Gallery of Photos
“If all the beasts were gone,
men would die
from a great loneliness of spirit,
for whatever happens to the beasts
also happens to the man.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the Earth
befalls the sons of the Earth.”
― Chief Seattle
