If our practice was our life,
if prayer our words?
What if the temple was the Earth,
if forests were our church,
if holy waters—the rivers, lakes, and oceans.
What if meditation was our relationships,
if the teacher was life,
if wisdom was self-knowledge,
if love was the center of our being. — Ganga White
My help is in the mountain where I take myself to heal the earthly wounds that people give to me. I find a rock with sun on it and a stream where the water runs gentle and the trees which one by one give me company. So I must stay for a long time until I have grown from the rock and the stream is running through me and I cannot tell myself from one tall tree. Then I know that nothing touches me nor makes me run away. My help is in the mountain that I take away with me.
Earth cure me. Earth receive my woe. Rock strengthen me. Rock receive my weakness. Rain wash my sadness away. Rain receive my doubt. Sun make sweet my song. Sun receive the anger from my heart.
—Nancy Wood
‘Earth Prayers From Around The World’; edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon
excerpt from ‘A Blessing for Beauty’, by John O’Donohue
Rachel Carson
Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself. — Henry David Thoreau
