“Were I called upon to define, very briefly, the term art, I should call it the reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature through the veil of the mist.”
-Edgar Allan Poe
“The joy of looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.”
-Albert Einstein
Tag Archives: Uplifting Words
Snow & Radiant Frost
“I love snow, snow, and all the forms of radiant frost.”
-Percy Shelley
Radiance
There is radiance here
in these unfolding years.
Simplicity deepens.
Alone-ness widens perspective.
Solitude forms a presence.
In the quietness the trees share their secrets
and the ravens tell their tales.
The mountains form the foundation of everything,
while the big sky holds them in a warm embrace.
The stilled mind cascades into wonder.
That is where the radiance lies, shimmering in that wonder.
I stay there now as often as I can.
A Blade of Grass
“Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
-Leonardo da Vinci
“The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”
The Universe is Your Echo
“How you vibrate is what the universe echoes back to you in every moment.”
-Panache
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.
Freedom, Books, Flowers and the Moon
“With freedom, books, flowers and the moon, who could not be happy”
-Gertrude Stein
Indeed. Small and large wonders around us when noticed and absorbed in their fullness can create happiness. There are thousands of other wonders but freedom, books, flowers and the moon are a really good start…..
October
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are October’s”
-L. M. Montgomery
“Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.”
~Jim Bishop
“The time of the falling leaves has come again. Once more in our morning walk we tread upon carpets of gold and crimson, of brown and bronze, woven by the winds or the rains out of these delicate textures while we slept.
How beautifully the leaves grow old! How full of light and color are their last days! There are exceptions, of course. The leaves of most of the fruit-trees fade and wither and fall ingloriously. They bequeath their heritage of color to their fruit. Upon it they lavish the hues which other trees lavish upon their leaves….
But in October what a feast to the eye our woods and groves present! The whole body of the air seems enriched by their calm, slow radiance. They are giving back the light they have been absorbing from the sun all summer.”
~John Burroughs, “The Falling Leaves,” Under the Maples
The Love of Wilderness
“The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth … the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need — if only we had the eyes to see.”
— Edward Abbey
Everything is Music
“When I am silent,
I fall into the place where everything is music.”
-Rumi
