Just What Is Freedom?

Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves. It is a daily practice.

– Thich Nhat Hanh

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What to Do when Feeling Overwhelmed

A dahlia within reach
A dahlia within reach

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.

– Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés

How to Handle Rain

For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is to let it rain.

– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Never would I have imagined watching a parade in the rain. We just don't do it that way in California!
Never would I have imagined watching a parade in the rain. We just don’t do it that way in California!

The Poet Speaks Again

To live, we must daily break the body and shed the book of creation. When we do it knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, destructively, it is a desecration.

– Wendell Berry, The Gift of Good Land

The art glass of Chihuly graces and is graced by the garden which it shares
The art glass of Chihuly graces and is graced by the garden which it shares

Sacrament

The created world is the primordial sacrament.

– Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ

And what does this tremendous diversity in creation tell us about the Creator?
And what does this tremendous diversity in creation tell us about the Creator?

Wisdom from the Poet

Singing streams
Singing streams

The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. 

– Wendell Berry

The Most Practical Virtue

Hope in the planting
Hope in the planting

As we face the grand ecological crisis of our time, our most important renewable resource is hope. We simply must put it on with our shoes each morning.

– Barbara Kingsolver

Wisdom from the Meister

Soaring osprey
Soaring osprey

If the soul could have known God without the world, the world would never have been created.

– Meister Eckhart

A Walk Always Helps

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

-John Muir

I wasn't exactly expecting to see him on the path!
I wasn’t exactly expecting to see him on the path!

Oneness with the Universe

A universe to be at one with
A universe to be at one with

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.

― Nicholas Black Elk