Hold on to what is good, Even if it’s a handful of earth. Hold on to what you believe, Even if it’s a tree that stands by itself. Hold on to what you must do, Even if it’s a long way from here. Hold on to your life, Even if it’s easier to let go. Hold on to my hand, Even if I’ve gone away from you.
Pueblo Indian Prayer
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Photo by Kyle Ellefson on Unsplash
‘I touch and surrender myself to the earth;
I become one with my true nature,
allowing it to emerge.
From these roots
I shall grow.’
~ Julie Timms
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Image: Soil, Root and Fern
by Nancy Lankston
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.
~Rachel Carson
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Image: Stone Face, Garden of the Gods
by Nancy Lankston
#EarthLove
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“There is one masterpiece, the hexagonal cell, that touches perfection. No living creature, not even human, has achieved, in the centre of one’s sphere, what the bee has achieved on her own: and if intelligence from another world were to descend and ask of the earth the most perfect creation, I would offer the humble comb of honey.”
~Maurice Maeterlinck,
The Life Of The Bee, 1924
“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.”
~Joseph Campbell
All rivers flow in spirals. I was shocked when I learned this fact, and yet it instantly felt true to me. The reason for the spiraling motion has to do with the resistance to flow at the edges of the river where water meets solid land. Without resistance at its edges, the river would simply flow in a straight line down the “tube” defined by the riverbanks. Instead, the water continuously rolls and spirals over itself, changing in speed and direction depending on how close to the riverbank it finds itself.
The spiral, rolling movement is what makes every river meander from side to side like a snake writhing on the ground. Natural rivers always meander, cutting into one bank and shifting their direction back and forth over time. Only waterways altered by man flow in straight lines – and then only for a little while. Water continues to spiral even in manmade waterways; it continuously fights against the linear path laid out for it.
There are no straight lines in nature. Human bones also grow in spirals, as do tree limbs unfurling out from the trunk. Why? Because tissue is primarily fluid at its growing edge. This is the water planet. All natural growth is fluid — flowing, spiraling fluid.
Break the rule of the spiral and you end up with the mess of hideous canals and failing dykes that now fight against the spiral will of the mighty Mississippi River. Even today, the waters of the river fight to flow and meander their way to the Gulf of Mexico. It is their nature.
What does it say about humans when we keep trying to straighten a river’s flow? What does it say about us when we fight against the innate nature of the river?
Can we learn to listen to the spiraling waters? Can we become more fluid ourselves and stop forcing the waters into a straightened path? Can we relax and flow again? What might we learn if we watched and listened to the wisdom of the river?
~Nancy Lankston