“I love snow, snow, and all the forms of radiant frost.”
-Percy Shelley
Tag Archives: Quotes
The Poor, The Poets and Monks
“I stand before you tonight to represent the people who do not count: The poor, the poets, and monks. As long as there are people who are trying to realize the divine in themselves, there shall be hope in the world.”
—Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton distills the experience of being human in this life. He was a Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky.
As a writer, poet, activist and continual student of comparative religion, he wrote timeless words that continue to resonate and teach. The quote above is from the closing he gave to an interfaith conference in Calcutta in 1968. Thomas Merton transitioned from this life a few days after he spoke these words.
Trees are Temples & Forests are Cathedrals
“When you enter a grove peopled with ancient trees, higher than the ordinary, and shutting out the sky with their thickly inter-twined branches, do not the stately shadows of the wood, the stillness of the place, …and the doomed cavern then strike you with the presence of a deity?”
– Seneca
“Going to the woods is going home.”
-John Muir
“My roots are in the depths of the woods.”
– Galle
To me, nature is sacred; trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.”
– Mikhail Gorbachev
Watching the Leaves Turn
“Even if something is left undone, everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn.”
-Elizabeth Lawrence
The Law of Mother Earth
From Minds.com on October 19th it is reported that Bolivia has passed a ten article law, The Law of Mother Earth. The tenants in the law are fundamental to the ongoing health and healing of the earth. This earth must be respected and honored in this way as it provides sustenance for all of us…nourishment for the body and the soul. I loved knowing and reading about this…
“The Law of Mother Earth (“Ley de Derechos de La Madre Tierra”) holds the land as sacred and holds it as a living system with rights to be protected from exploitation, and creates 11 distinguished rights for the environment. It was passed by Bolivia’s Plurinational Legislative Assembly. This 10 article law is derived from the first part of a longer draft bill, drafted and released by the Pact of Unity by November 2010. Can we please spread this law? There has to be a way for the free market to interoperate with reverence for this planet. Period.
In accordance with the philosophy of Pachamama, it states, “She is sacred, fertile and the source of life that feeds and cares for all living beings in her womb. She is in permanent balance, harmony and communication with the cosmos. She is comprised of all ecosystems and living beings, and their self-organisation.”
“It makes world history. Earth is the mother of all,” said Vice-President Alvaro García Linera. “It establishes a new relationship between man and nature, the harmony of which must be preserved as a guarantee of its regeneration.”
The law enumerates seven specific rights to which Mother Earth and her constituent life systems, including human communities, are entitled to:
-
To life: It is the right to the maintenance of the integrity of life systems and natural processes which sustain them, as well as the capacities and conditions for their renewal
-
To the Diversity of Life: It is the right to the preservation of the differentiation and variety of the beings that comprise Mother Earth, without being genetically altered, nor artificially modified in their structure, in such a manner that threatens their existence, functioning and future potential
-
To water: It is the right of the preservation of the quality and composition of water to sustain life systems and their protection with regards to contamination, for renewal of the life of Mother Earth and all its components
-
To clean air: It is the right of the preservation of the quality and composition of air to sustain life systems and their protection with regards to contamination, for renewal of the life of Mother Earth and all its components
-
To equilibrium: It is the right to maintenance or restoration of the inter-relation, interdependence, ability to complement and functionality of the components of Mother Earth, in a balanced manner for the continuation of its cycles and the renewal of its vital processes
-
To restoration: It is the right to the effective and opportune restoration of life systems affected by direct or indirect human activities
-
To live free of contamination: It is the right for preservation of Mother Earth and any of its components with regards to toxic and radioactive waste generated by human activities
The Last of its Clan
“The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.”-Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Day’s Beginnings
“Autumn mornings: sunshine and crisp air, birds and calmness, year’s end and day’s beginnings.”
-Terri Guillemets
Autumn’s Luster
“There is a harmony
In autumn, and a luster in its sky…”
~Percy Bysshe Shelley
Autumn’s harmony is deeply felt and completely absorbed. This is a season of completion and reflection, and of shimmering beauty, luster and radiance. The grasses and trees are shining forth in full fruition of their potential. The forests rich in greens and yellows.
The gifts of Fall’s presence, endlessly giving.
Everything Beautiful
“I promise if you keep searching for everything beautiful in this world you will eventually become it.”
-Tyler Kent White
The Face of Autumn
“No Spring nor Summer Beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one Autumnal face.”
– John Donne
