April 2002 (Vol. XV, No. 4)

BLESSINGS, dear friends, as we enter another life-giving Springtime season of new blossomings bursting from the earth and, hopefully, arising in our hearts as well. In the silence of early April mornings, listen for the promise of winter's gestate seeds awakening. What flowers await birth in your inner soul garden? Be still ... in the silence, you will know.

Chief Seattle
The earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood that unites one family. Whatever befalls the earth befalls all who dwell on earth. We did not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
Wendy Crockett Sweetwater Wisdom

We as a people are only now beginning to learn to read the language of the earth once more. We are beginning to see what our actions create. Since the beginning there have been those who have listened to the earth's song. We are a note in the discord or the harmony of this world. The way we walk is the way it becomes. Speak in anger and anger will come to you, speak with caring and love and these too shall be drawn to you. Our choices in action are sacred. To choose to work our way through our emotions and actions in a good way can be a most sacred act. Each action affects all others.

Hildegard of Bingen
I, the fiery life of divine essence, am aflame beyond the beauty of the meadows. I gleam in the waters. I burn in the sun, moon, and stars. With every breeze, as with invisible life that contains everything, I awaken everything to life. I am the breeze that nurtures all things green. I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits. I am the rain coming from the dew that causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life.
Richard Bachtold

The old tree of eternal creative life lives
with an open heart, very deep roots,
and many branches waiting to
transform into new life.

Machaella Small Wright

All universal truths are available to us. All universal knowledge. Nothing is withheld. Our soul has a limitless capacity to enfold and know all. This is part of the dynamic of the soul. We are faced with the job of healing the planet, healing it from the multitude of messes we have created. The only way this can happen is for people to change their attitudes toward nature As we each open to the broader reality of nature, our attitudes will automatically shift, and how we treat our immediate environment will alter to accommodate those shifts in attitude. We will live our lives differently. We will have different motivations for what we do. We will become active co-creative partners in life. We will behave as if the God of ALL life mattered.

Henry Stark Sacred Journey
I found a comfortable spot under a tree, far from the bees, and I closed my eyes. My mind cleared. All my fears, anger, and frustration fell away. A sudden calmness pervaded me and I felt in total harmony with my surroundings. No longer compelled to fight the perceived obstacles and dangers, I recognized a very natural and constant order. I had a tremendous realization that there was a natural harmony here in the mountains, and everywhere, and that for the first time in my life I felt that I was truly a part of God's universe.
John Hay

In all of nature there can be nothing more expressive than silence.

Thomas Berry Earth Letters

In the early evening we see the stars begin to appear as the sun disappears over the horizon. The light of day gives way to the darkness of night. A stillness, a healing quiet comes over the landscape. It's a moment when some other world makes itself known, a numinous presence beyond human understanding. We experience the vast realms of space overwhelming the limitations of our human minds. As the sky turns golden and the clouds reflect the blazing colors of evening, we participate for a moment in the forgiveness, the peace, the intimacy of things with each other.

Hilda Rostron

What did you find in the fields today,
you who have wandered so far away?

I found a wind-flower, small and frail,
and a crocus cup like a holy grail;
I found a hill that was clad in gorse,
a new-built nest, and a streamlet's source;
I saw a star and a moonlit tree;
I listened... I think God spoke to me.

Anonymous

How glorious is Your dwelling place,
O Loving Creator of the universe!

Anonymous

In the Middle Ages saunterers were considered saint de terre as they wandered the countryside.

Anna Akhmatova

Sunset in the ethereal waves:
I cannot tell if the day
is ending, or the world, or if
the secret of secrets is inside me again.

Ayya Khema I Give You My Life

The three months of solitude were of the greatest significance for me. I came away from them very much strengthened — ready to share my insights with people who were interested in hearing them. Still today, I have the sounds of the jungle in my ears: the cries of the monkeys and birds and the wind rushing through the banana leaves. But there were also times of utter silence, at dawn and twilight. I took walks in the jungle in order to look at nature as a part of myself.

Camille Flammarion

The solitary globe of night
pours out its calm and clear light
in the midst of the silence and
contemplation of nature.

Therese of Lisieux

You set before me the book of Nature; and I understood how all the flowers created by You are beautiful, how the splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the little violet or the delightful simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all flowers wanted to be roses, Nature would lose her springtime beauty, and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wild flowers... It is the same in the world of souls, Your living garden.

Henry David Thoreau

The earth is not a mere fragment of dead history, a stratum upon stratum like the leaves of a book, to be studied by biologists and antiquarians chiefly, but living poetry like the leaves of a tree, which precede flowers and fruit — not a fossil earth but a living earth.