If your mind is not clouded by unnecessary things,
This is the best season of your life.
--Wu-Men
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"Go quietly, Carry little."
Poetry, quotations, personal reflections from a lover of the wilderness, a lover of the silence....
Poetry, quotations, personal reflections from a lover of the wilderness, a lover of the silence....
Blog Archive
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2009
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March
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- Thank You, Mr. President
- What if?
- Earth Hour is Saturday at 8:30 PM Your Time
- If your mind is not clouded by unnecessary things,...
- Are we living in The Age of Stupid?
- A Letter From Copenhagen, Part 2
- A Letter From Copenhagen, Part 1
- Bleak House
- When Cold Water is Needed
- “Love of the wilderness is more than a hunger for ...
- I can't change the world, but....
- Testing Utterli/Bees by Jane Hirshfield
- One Must Know When to Stop
- Everything is Amazing, Nobody is Happy
- A 20-year tale of hope
- Welcome to the Epicenter of Global Warming
- Labels
- Some days you feel like a silly label...
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March
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More About Me
Wisdom?/Humor?/Reality?/Hope.
"More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly." ~Woody Allen
"Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse." ~Lily Tomlin
"We must face the prospect of changing our basic ways of living. This change will either be made on our own initiative in a planned way, or forced on us with chaos and suffering by the inexorable laws of nature." ~Jimmy Carter
One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards." ~Edward Abbey, from a speech to environmentalists in Missoula, Montana in 1978 and in Colorado, which was published in High Country News under the title "Joy, Shipmates, Joy."
"What I fear most is despair
for the world and us: forever less
of beauty, silence, open air,
gratitude, unbidden happiness,
affection, unegotistical desire
~Wendell Berry, from IX, Sabbaths 1998, in Given
"Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse." ~Lily Tomlin
"We must face the prospect of changing our basic ways of living. This change will either be made on our own initiative in a planned way, or forced on us with chaos and suffering by the inexorable laws of nature." ~Jimmy Carter
One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards." ~Edward Abbey, from a speech to environmentalists in Missoula, Montana in 1978 and in Colorado, which was published in High Country News under the title "Joy, Shipmates, Joy."
"What I fear most is despair
for the world and us: forever less
of beauty, silence, open air,
gratitude, unbidden happiness,
affection, unegotistical desire
~Wendell Berry, from IX, Sabbaths 1998, in Given
Followers
Isn't it amazing how the "season" can last for months, days, or even just a moment?
ReplyDeleteVal,
ReplyDelete"Months"? Wow....
I'm lucky if I get "moments."
I'm with you, FW. However, I have noticed that when I meditate regularly (which I have been lately) I have more of those moments sprinkled throughout the day.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm totally with you on that Amy. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks.
I've had months before... not that the months didn't have moments that were not in season...but, yes, I've had months...
ReplyDeleteDefinitely more moments than months these days though...but the long season will come again... if I have hope in anything, I have hope in that...
: )
I'll hope with you.
ReplyDeleteLove this!
ReplyDeleteIf we can see the clouds simply as clouds, then the sun shines everywhere!
ReplyDeleteThanks Wilsonian and Barry. :)
ReplyDeleteBarry, I tell ya, you're another Wu-men....