April 2003 (Vol. XVI, No. 4)

Wishing you each SPRING BLESSINGS, dear friends. Awakening from winter gestation, what joyu to hear bird song, to delight in budding bulbs and trees, to feel the gentle breezes of a new season, to smell the earth being turned over for seed planting. Let us pause often to nourish our souls in nature's beauty and new life emerging -- hope in these troubling times.

For all its silence, the sky has a language. Without any words the stars speak many things right into our hearts. They hand there so silent and radiant — and how one's breast swells at the thought of being able to attain the same purity. At times it seems as if their light is of little benefit. Yet is is by them that we measure hours, days, and years. By them — or at least by the star nearest to us, the sun — we have light and heart, and our existence depends on it.

~ by J. C. Blumhardt
J. C. Blumhardt nature Buy on Amazon
Creation has been given to us as a clean window through which the light of God could shine into the human soul. Sun and moon, night and day, rain, sea, crops, the flowering tree: all these things are transparent.
~ by Thomas Merton in "Horizons" thanks to Nancy Conley
Thomas Merton Horizons nature Buy on Amazon

For humankind, a growing gap between our inner selves and outer selves — an imbalance between how we live our lives and how we would like to live them — leaves the spirit thirsting for renewal. For many, renewal and re-creation come with time spent in the natural world. The human spirit and the open landscape are inextricably connected. In feeling the spirit of place, we reconnect with the spirit of self.

~ from BEFORE LIFE HURRIES ON by Sabra Field and J. Lingelbach
J. Lingelbach, Sabra Field Before Life Hurries On nature Buy on Amazon

Each creature God made
Must live in its own true nature;
How could I resist my nature,
That lives for oneness with God?

~ by Mechtild of Magdeburg
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Within the universe, the planet Earth with all its wonder is the place for the meeting of the divine and the human.
~ from Evening Thoughts by Thomas Berry
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Gabriella did not move. She was enchanted. She closed her eyes a moment and felt the coolness of her eyelids and saw the green shadows dancing beneath them. She pursed her lips to taste the moisture of the mountain forest and knew for sure that she was not dreaming. When she opened her eyes, she saw the deer eating the coiled peel of the clementine. It was a moment she would long remember. She would remember it as the mysterious beginning of healing, the untranslatable language of God speaking in nature and stopping the world in a green moment.
~ from AS IT IS IN HEAVEN by Niall Williams
Niall Williams As It Is In Heaven nature Buy on Amazon

A down feather as soft as an infant's curl floats earthward and brushes the granite rock by my side. It feels like a message from above, and I wonder what it is telling me. I pick up this angel-wisp and hold it to my cheek. I feel it as a caress, a gentle and loving touch, and I realize that this IS the message — one that transcends words, concepts, and thoughts. It touches my heart and a place of inner knowing. In that moment I am complete, thankful, and fully at peace.

~ from ENTERING THE SACRED MOUNTAIN by David A. Cooper
David A. Cooper Entering The Sacred Mountain nature Buy on Amazon

In the traditional way of life gardens were a ceremonial event for all, an opportunity to give to the Earth as well as to receive. The seeds of good food are also the seeds of good relationship, so caretaking the garden is symbolic of caretaking all beings ... an offering to all.

~ from VOICES OF OUR ANCESTORS by Dhyani Ywahoo
Dhyani Ywahoo Voices Of Our Ancestors nature Buy on Amazon

Speak to the earth, and it will teach thee.

~ from Job 12:8
Job Job 12:8 nature
Hear me, You who have power to make grow! Guide the people that they may be as blossoms on your holy tree. Make it flourish deep in Mother Earth and make it full of leaves and singing birds.
~ Black Elk
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We are, each of us, passive participants in an explosion still in progress. The sparks continue to fly, and in its rhythm, the universe is still expanding from that ancient blast. We are, as they say, star dust, by-products of the Big Bang. In this light, everything is connected, all creation evolving from the same Source, in a process which continues. We are kin to the stars, part of a universal family.
~ by Christopher Newbert
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Those who have eyes to see will discern the message of eternity in the spring breeze when it becomes visible in the roses and herbs: invisible waves of roses, hidden in the breeze, required the medium of the earth to reveal themselves to the material human eye, just as the human beings innate qualities must be revealed by his or her actions. The spirit needs matter in order to become visible; thus every leaf is a messenger from the realm of nonexistene, and talks with its long hands and fresh green tongue of the creative power of God.

~ from RUMI'S WORLD by Annemarie Schimmel
Annearie Schimmel Rumi's World nature Buy on Amazon

This is my work,
To keep this world green,
Keep it all green.
I began in the East, to help my friends.
I keep this world green,
Keep it beautiful.
I begin to fill the creeks,
To wet everything,
Keep it beautiful and green,
I begin in the East,
Make everything beautiful!
That is my work.

~ from THE MASCOUTENS by Alanson Skinner -- 1924
Alanson Skinner The Mascoutens nature Buy on Amazon

If your heart were pure then all of nature would be a great book of holy wisdom and sacred doctrine.

~ by St. Francis
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Gray are all the theories;
Green is the Tree of Life.

~ by Goethe
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As I stood with the sun on the summit of the modest mountain peak, the solar orb became a catalyst for my encounter with the Divine. As often appears in myth, the sun became the conveyance for God. It ushered me into the Divine Presence through its powerful symbolic function, its archetypal capacity to represent the one. I was overcome as I stood alone before the Divine. I was seized by the Presence communicated through the sudden appearance of the sun. It carried me into an intense awareness of the Divine's utter reality. I knew then why I had made this journey, and the peace it conveyed remains with me to this day.

~ from A MONK IN THE WORD by Wayne Teasdale
Wayne Teasdale A Monk In The World nature Buy on Amazon

For all its silence, the sky has a language

For all its silence, the sky has a language. Without any words the stars speak many things right into our hearts. They hand there so silent and radiant — and how one's breast swells at the thought of being able to attain the same purity. At times it seems as if their light is of little benefit. Yet is is by them that we measure hours, days, and years. By them — or at least by the star nearest to us, the sun — we have light and heart, and our existence depends on it.

Creation has been given to us as a clean window

Creation has been given to us as a clean window through which the light of God could shine into the human soul. Sun and moon, night and day, rain, sea, crops, the flowering tree: all these things are transparent.

Re-creation comes with time spent in the natural world

For humankind, a growing gap between our inner selves and outer selves — an imbalance between how we live our lives and how we would like to live them — leaves the spirit thirsting for renewal. For many, renewal and re-creation come with time spent in the natural world. The human spirit and the open landscape are inextricably connected. In feeling the spirit of place, we reconnect with the spirit of self.

Each craature God made

Each creature God made
Must live in its own true nature;
How could I resist my nature,
That lives for oneness with God?

The untranslatable language of God speaking in nature and stopping the world

Gabriella did not move. She was enchanted. She closed her eyes a moment and felt the coolness of her eyelids and saw the green shadows dancing beneath them. She pursed her lips to taste the moisture of the mountain forest and knew for sure that she was not dreaming. When she opened her eyes, she saw the deer eating the coiled peel of the clementine. It was a moment she would long remember. She would remember it as the mysterious beginning of healing, the untranslatable language of God speaking in nature and stopping the world in a green moment.

A down feather as soft as an infant's curl

A down feather as soft as an infant's curl floats earthward and brushes the granite rock by my side. It feels like a message from above, and I wonder what it is telling me. I pick up this angel-wisp and hold it to my cheek. I feel it as a caress, a gentle and loving touch, and I realize that this IS the message — one that transcends words, concepts, and thoughts. It touches my heart and a place of inner knowing. In that moment I am complete, thankful, and fully at peace.

Caretaking the garden

In the traditional way of life gardens were a ceremonial event for all, an opportunity to give to the Earth as well as to receive. The seeds of good food are also the seeds of good relationship, so caretaking the garden is symbolic of caretaking all beings ... an offering to all.

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