“Every day, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.”
-Soren Kierkegaard
“We should take wandering outdoor walks, so that the mind might be nourished and refreshed by the open air and deep breathing.”
-Seneca
“It is only ideas gained from walking that have any worth.”
-Nietzsche
“It is a paradox that perhaps the single best way to still one’s mind is to put the body in motion.”
“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
“I walked on, talking in my head. In all the miles no silence lived. Inside my thoughts, I realized finally that, more than in wind or cold or Breakup, the power and absoluteness of wild earth resided in its huge uncompromising silence.”
-Seth Kantner (from my favorite book of this year, Ordinary Wolves)
“We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.”
—Anton Chekhov
“Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.”
—Baruch Spinoza
“Peace has never come from dropping bombs. Real peace comes from enlightenment and educating people to behave more in a divine manner.”
—Carlos Santana
“Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.”
—Jawaharlal Nehru
“You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”
—Malcolm X
“If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.”
—Moshe Dayan
“Every day we do things, we are things that have to do with peace. If we are aware of our life…, our way of looking at things, we will know how to make peace right in the moment, we are alive.”
—Thich Nhat Hanh
“First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.”
“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.”
-Henry David Thoreau
“Love they said burns you and builds you!
But with you, there is no ash,
Just Light.
-Kamand Kojouni
“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”
“Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less
kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle
in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for –
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world –
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,
the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant –
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,
the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help
but grow wise
with such teachings
as these –
the untrimmable light
of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?”
“Go outside and don’t go to a special place. Just go into your neighborhood and repeatedly, over and over again, open your ears and harvest the sounds all around you. Whether those are tree sounds or car sounds or bird sounds. Without judgment, just be present for the physical experience of sounds flowing into our consciousness. Do that over and over again and the trees will befriend you — or come into your consciousness and teach you some of what they’re saying.”
You can click onto any individual photo to view a full size version – then use right and left arrows for a slideshow.
“A lake carries you into recesses of feeling otherwise impenetrable.”
-William Woodsworth
This lake certainly did carry me into impenetrable recesses of feeling! It’s incredible depth carries an equal depth in peacefulness. The blue is otherworldly, the reflected mirror of the sky and clouds serene and beautiful.
At 1,949 feet, it is the deepest lake in the United States, and 7th deepest in the world. The caldera was created when Mount Mazama’s top quarter was blown off in a powerful volcanic eruption and over time it was filled entirely from rain and melted snow. The purity of the water is felt as well as seen.
I loved the feelings accessed here, and just being absorbed by the tranquil quiet of this lake’s shores…
