Happy Earth Day

The earth does not argue,

Is not pathetic, has no arrangements,

Does not scream, haste , persuade, threaten, promise,

Make no discriminations, has no conceivable failures, 

Closes nothing, refuses nothing, shuts none out, 

Of all the powers, objects, states, it notifies, shuts none out.

ஐ Walt Whitman

Now there is one outstandingly important fact regarding Spaceship Earth, and that is that no instruction book came with it. 

ஐ Buckminster Fuller

The Small Earth

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, 

we borrow it from our children. 

~Native American Proverb

A margin of life is developed by Nature 

for all living things - including man. 

All life forms obey Nature's demands - except man, 

who has found ways of ignoring them. 

~Eugene M. Poriot

The wealth of the nation is its air, water, soil, forests, minerals, rivers, 

lakes, oceans, scenic beauty, wildlife habitats and biodiversity...

that's all there is. That's the whole economy.

That's where all the economic activity and jobs come from. 

These biological systems are the sustaining wealth of the world. 

~Gaylord Nelson

I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man 

if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature 

and more time tasting he sweetness and respecting her seniority. 

~Elwyn Brooks White

Bird Flight

Birds are indicators of the environment. 

If they are in trouble, we know we'll soon be in trouble.

◅⁽⊙)  Roger Tory Peterson 

www.funsymbols.com 

In a broader sense, the rhythms of nature, large and small - the sounds of wind and water, the sounds of birds and insects - must inevitably find their analogues in music.

◅⁽⊙)  George Crumb

I can find God in nature, in animals, in birds and the environment.

◅⁽⊙)  Pat Buckley

Blade of Grass

The moment one gives close attention to anything, 

even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, 

awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.   

ஐ Henry Miller

Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.

You must travel it by yourself.

It is not far. It is within reach.

Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.

Perhaps it is everywhere -- on water and land.   

ஐ Walt Whitman

In the world's audience hall, 

the simple blade of grass sits on the 

same carpet with the sunbeams, 

and the stars of midnight.  

ஐ Rabindranath Tagore

There is not one blade of grass, 

there is no color in this world 

that is not intended to make us rejoice.  

ஐ John Calvin

See A World...

To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand , And eternity in an hour. 

~William Blake

Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it. ~Henry David Thoreau

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. 

~William Shakepeare

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Not Just A Weed...

"I am not just a weed in the garden..." 
It whispers on the wind.
Yellow petals shimmer softly. 
They are tiny amber faces with little bright fingers waving quietly in the afternoon sun. 
Sandy blooms sway to the birdsong drifting on the breeze. 
In a brief moment they are captured by time and each blossom winks a smile then continues bathing in the golden light.
"I am not just a weed in the garden..." 
It whispers.

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle, 1855

The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man's heart away from nature becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of  respect for humans too. ~Chief Luther Standing Bear

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, 

they spit upon themselves. ~Native American Wisdom

ஐ

Little Green Lizard

The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope. ~Wendell Berry

Why should man expect his prayer to be heard by What is above him when he shows no mercy to what is under him? ~Pierre Troubetzkoy

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, 

he finds it attached to the rest of the world. ~John Muir

A little green lizard may not look like much, but he maintains a balance within his special ecosystem. This balance affects us all. Each little life is important on the Earth. Help take care of them. ൠ

Green Things Growing...

There is an appointed time for everything.
And there is a time for every event under heaven---
A time to give birth, and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. ~Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

O the green things growing, the green things growing,

The faint sweet smell of the green things growing!

I should like to live, whether I smile or grieve,

Just to watch the happy life of my green things growing.

~Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, 

he finds it attached to the rest of the world. ~John Muir

Blue Flame...White Flame...

How many million Aprils came
before I ever knew
how white a cherry bough could be,
a bed of squills, how blue
And many a dancing April
when life is done with me,
will lift the blue flame of the flower





and the white flame of tree
Oh burn me with your beauty then,
oh hurt me tree and flower,
lest in the end death try to take
even this glistening hour...
                                                            ~Sara Teasdale

The year's at the spring,

And day's at the morn;

Morning's at seven;

The hill-side's dew-pearled;

The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn;

God's in his Heaven-

All's right with the world!

~Robert Browning

Spring in April

Flower god, god of the spring, beautiful, bountiful,
Cold-dyed shield in the sky, lover of versicles, 
Here I wander in April

Cold, grey-headed; and still to my
Heart, Spring comes with a bound, Spring the deliverer,

Spring, song-leader in woods, chorally resonant;
Spring, flower-planter in meadows,
Child-conductor in willowy
Fields deep dotted with bloom, daisies and crocuses:

Here that child from his heart drinks eternity:
O child, happy are children!
She still smiles on their innocence,
She, dear mother in God, fostering violets,
Fills earth full of her scents, voices and violins:

Thus one cunning music
Wakes old chords in the memory:
Thus fair earth in the Spring leads her performances.
One more touch of the bow, smell the virginal
Green - one more, and my bosom
Feels new life with an ecstasy.
                                                                                  
~Robert Louis Stevenson

April Showers

 

The April rain, the April rain,

Comes slanting down in fitful showers,

Then from the furrow shoots the grain,

And banks are fledged with nestling flowers;

And in grey shawl and woodland bowers

The cuckoo through the April rain

Calls once again.

~Mathilde Blind 

Let the rain kiss you

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops

Let the rain sing you a lullaby

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk

The rain makes running pools in the gutter

The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night

And I love the rain

~Langston Hughes