Why a walk in nature helps

tree light

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

David Wagoner, Lost

Asking for nothing

File:Dupont's Lark, Morocco 1 (crop).jpg

God, I said. What good is language?

part of me wondered, but I did not stop.

God I said, from deep inside of me.

Outside it was almost dawn:

the birds awake in all the trees, singing.

These were not the words I had grown up to say:

My mind quiet before the growing sounds.

The birds have opened all their throats once and then again and again:

God, each one singing, asking for nothing, inside my heart.

Nadia Colburn, Where the Light Enters

photo mike prince

Beneath

lake nyon

Be the silent watcher of your thoughts and behaviour.

You are not your thoughts

You are beneath the thinker

You are the stillness beneath the mental noise.

You are the love and joy beneath the pain

Eckhart Tolle

 

Moments are all we have

lyrath

How do we cultivate the conditions

for joy to expand?

We train in staying present.

Pema Chodron

photo of Spring wildflowers at Lyrath House, Kilkenny

Being too busy

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I practice meditation

so that I can notice the small purple flowers by the roadside

that I would otherwise miss

Anagarika Shri Munindra, 1915 – 2003, Vipassana teacher

photo matt lavin

Sunday Quote: Open our eyes

glendalough SK

Happiness is available.

Please help yourself.

Thich Nhat Hahn

photograph of glendalough Co Wicklow