Inspirations: Poetry & Quotations to Explore

[Heather K]

"Thomas Jefferson said he didn’t think we could have democracy unless at
least 20% of the population was self-supporting on small farms so they were
independent enough to be able to tell an oppressive government to 'stuff it'.
It is very difficult to control people who can create products without
purchasing inputs from the system, who can market their products directly
thus avoiding the involvement of mercenary middlemen, who can butcher
animals and preserve foods without reliance on industrial conglomerates, and
who can’t be bullied because they can feed their own faces."
- Eliot Coleman, Author, Farmer, Human Being

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"The greatest challenges for humanity are not hunger, poverty, peace, public health, education, the economy, natural resources, nor a combination of these or other issues ... but our capacity to build new social organizations capable of providing the solutions.  Our greatest challenge is collective intelligence." 

         -F Noubel

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"I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big success.

I am for those tiny, invidible loving human forces taht work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the worls like so many rootlets..."  - William James

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" I see the beauty everywhere I turn - breathing deep in fresh winter's air --- hearing bird wings flutter with songs as I rise in the morning to walk through the garden.

May fertile soil & winter dreams awaken & nourish living creations" - Earthwalker Dancing

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"Everything changes. It has always been so. Our lives pass swiftly away. To be human is to swim in a sea of intertwined beauty and loss.

Yet the losses we now contemplate are of a different order of magnitude, beyond the imagining of any former generation of human beings. In the daily scramble of love and work, it is easy to miss the scale of what we face. It is easy to confuse our climate crisis with a litany of lesser ills we'd simply rather ignore.

Yet it is not the human way to surrender what is most precious to us without rallying the full measure of our courage and fortitude to the cause of survival. This is the moment of truth into which all previous generations have delivered us,, with the fate of all future generations now resting in our hands. Imagine! We have entered a perfect storm of our own making. The living earth on which we sail, the cradle of all homelands and all possible homecomings, is in grave danger of sinking. Every hand is needed on deck. What greater adventure could anyone ask for?"

- Kurt Hoelting “The Circumference of Home” one man's yearlong quest for a radically local life

 

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The Peace of Wild Things
"When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water,
and the great heron feeds,
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free." -Wendell Berry

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 "Would that we could be bound by our intent and not our words."

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"... when we finally know we are dying,
and all other sentient beings are dying with us,
we start to have a burning, almost heartbreaking sense
of the fragility and preciousness of each moment and each being,
and from this can grow a deep, clear,
limitless compassion for all beings." - Sogyal Rinpoche

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  “ The natural world contains many interesting examples that may have some analogies in human activity.......When a large enough number of bees agree about a site, they end up selecting the best one. There is an analogous situation with humans. People in groups, provided with the necessary information, tend to make better decisions than individuals making decisions for the group. A diversity of people (backgrounds, skills, outlooks) allows a group to evaluate issues better. Because they are, as a group, involved in the decision-making process, they feel more ownership of the decision and a desire to help implement it....” - Professor Fred Megdoff (plant & soil scientist) from

“Ecological Civilization” . Google doc at- 'monthlyreview.org/110101magdoff.php

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" Every breath you take is sacred...Within the Sacred Circle, we can experience the circle of giving and receiving, the circle of in-breathing and of out-breathing, in which all things come to life through the power of the Great Spirit, Wakan Tanka, the Source of Being, the Mystery......

"We are here to care for the earth.... Each of us here in this multitude is a single leaf on the Great Spirit's tree. When we go within ourselves to touch the river of life that runs at the heart of our innermost being, each one of us touches the same life that flows within our sisters & brothers, even as the same sap flows through all the leaves of a tree...

"...Our life is lit from the same fire that burns in the heart of the Beloved....
Each individual being is a flame created from the eternal fire of Infinite Love."

- paraphrased from 'Return of the Bird Tribes" - Ken Carey

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"Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond." ~Rumi

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As time flows on - I'll add more quotes & poetry

Click "Follow" to receive any additions added to blog comment section

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"Our Awareness Increases with Quiet Time Being Within Gaia’s Garden…
Our Relationships with the Earth & Our Maker Can Become Streams of Living
Water, Overflowing with Abundance & Gratitude For The Simplest Blessings. "
( HK )

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ON THE EARTH WITHIN SPIRITS EMBRACE

"On The Earth my back lies down - Slowly
. . .with eyes straight up ahead
. . . ..seeing up deep through tree's glory
. . . . .to stars of wonder...stars of delight...

Body breathes in
. .soul fills with awe - fills with wonder
. . . - soul filling up with gratitude...
Body breathe out
. .soul releasing grief - guilt - fear -
. . .beyond worlds of pain...
Body breathes in deeper - fuller – life's Presence
. . ...as my heart – relaxes --
. . . .into Loves Embrace
. . . . .held by Earth-Garden-Spirit-Holy-

In This Moment
. . . I am blessed with life...
In This Moment
. . . I am ready to release
. . . . my earth-waterly-flesh -
. . . . . to return to Source - return to Mystery
. . . . . . .....that Birthed All. . .

I Soul Remember
. . . Earth's Eternal Spirit Life Is Now
. . . . Within Spirit's Embrace.... "

. . . . . - Earthwalker Dancing

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More Favorite Quotes:

 

"Thank you for letting me know how you heard my comment. I would, however, like to be heard differently"- D.ML. as learned from Alan Seid.
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"Love is the religion in me
Let the beauty we love, be what we do" -Rumi

 

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 “We cannot doubt that we have been given the intellectual vision, the spiritual insight, and even the physical resource we need for carrying out the transition that is demanded of these times, transition from the period when humans were a disruptive force on the planet Earth to the period when humans became present to the planet in a manner that is mutually enhancing”” - Thomas Berry

 

*                *      Quotes to Share Later   *                 *                 *                     *

 

 "Permaculture: Consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fiber and energy for provision of local needs. People, their buildings and the ways they organize themselves are central to permaculture. Thus the permaculture vision of permanent (sustainable) agriculture has evolved to one of permanent (sustainable) culture." - David Holmgren” Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability”

 

   

"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty."-- (unknown author)

 

"I think democracy is a very very radical idea. It's not accepted by Communists. Stalin didn't accept it. I don't think capitalists like it because it takes power from them and gives it to people who haven't got money. And that is a very dangerous idea indeed."

- and -

"I think democracy is the most revolutionary thing in the world. Far more revolutionary than socialist ideas, or anybody else's ideas. If you have power, you use it to meet the needs of you & your community."

-> both quotes by Tony Benn, retired Member of Parliament, UK

 

[David MacLeod]

Good stuff.  The quote you attribute to me was something I learned from Alan Seid. Below is currently one of my favorite quotes.

 

"Rather than a big economic stick to force the majority off the 'gravy train' of affluence, we need a change in values and rewards to reinvest in creating livelihoods and lifestyles of humble husbanding of nature. In other words, we need a deep cultural revolution that recognises society's increasing dependence on nature. The mass of people will need to return to working with nature to provide the food and other resources necessary to support all the other levels of a future low-energy sustainable society.

 

Permaculture could be seen as ecological rationalism: it recognises the design rules and measures of value in energy descent, and it provides ethical and positive pathways for embracing those design rules."

- David Holmgren, Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability (p. 79)

[Heather K]

"The greatest challenges for humanity are not hunger, poverty, peace, public health, education, the economy, natural resources, nor a combination of these or other issues ... but our capacity to build new social organizations capable of providing the solutions.  Our greatest challenge is collective intelligence." 

         -F Noubel

[Heather K]

"I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big success. I am for those tiny, invisible loving human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets.....” - William James

[Heather K]

"...The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.“ -Bill Mollison