
Storm on the Horizon



“As I grew to understand the gifts of the earth, I couldn’t understand how ‘love of country’ could omit recognition of the actual country itself.
The only promise it requires is to a flag. What of the promises to each other and to the land?
What would it be like to be raised on gratitude, to speak to the natural world as a member of the democracy of the species, to raise a pledge of interdependence?
No declarations of political loyalty are required, just a response to a repeated question:
Can we agree to be grateful for all that is given?
… What happens to nationalism, to political boundaries, when allegiance lies with winds and waters that know no boundaries, that cannot be bought or sold?”
~Robin Wall Kimmerer,
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
🌍 ❤️

Be like a tree.
Stay grounded. Connect with your roots.
Turn over a new leaf. Bend before you break.
Enjoy your unique beauty. Keep growing.
~ Joanne Raptis
🌲 ❤️
“Our bodies remember that we lived in trees and forests. We need to crawl and climb and run if we are to develop our intellectual, emotional and spiritual capacities. We did not emerge from an austere iceberg of a distant planet, but in the particularities of this Earth and its forests. When we wander through the mountains climbing and running, our bodies remember these deep patterns of behavior intrinsically tied to all we are.”
~Brian Swimme,
The Universe is a Green Dragon

” Ever since we arrived on this planet as a species, we’ve cut them down, dug them up, burnt them and poisoned them. Today we’re doing so on a greater scale than ever.
We destroy trees at our peril. Neither we nor any other animal can survive without them. “
~Sir David Attenborough
🌲❤️
“Place your hands into soil to feel grounded.
Wade into water to feel emotionally healed.
Fill your lungs with fresh air to feel mentally clear.
Raise your face to the heat of the sun and
connect with that fire to feel your own immense power.”
~ Victoria Erickson


#BeFilledWithLightAndShine
Mary’s entire poem:
When I am Among the Trees
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
~Mary Oliver

Our ancestors said to their mother Earth: ‘We are yours’.
Modern Humanity said to Nature, ‘You are mine’.
The Green Man has returned as the living face of the whole earth so that through his mouth we may say to the universe: ‘We are one’.
~ Sharon Brubaker