Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.*
Henry David Thoreau

If you keep telling people who they are, who their best selves are, if you keep reminding them of their true identity, there’s a good chance they’ll figure out what to do.
Rob Bell

It’s a staggering thought:
The mighty sequoia is contained within a tiny seed, just
waiting to germinate;
No less staggering is what lies within
you,
Waiting.

*Austin Kleon’s blog: What does a seed look like?;
**Rob Bell’s What is the Bible?

Without a name made in our mouths, an animal or place struggles to find purchase in our minds or our hearts.*
Tim Dee

Bring light to all that is overcast.**
Plotinus

Words help us understand
and enable us to share;
The words of others have been light for us,
So that we might not only see, but also
know, and we can
be light to others:
Words make worlds.^

*Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks;
**John O’Donohue’s Divine Beauty;
^Krista Tippett’s Becoming Wise.

I would not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.*
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Our life experience will equal what we pay attention to.**
William James

Some people lead simple lives,
not daring to enter its complexity;
Others enter into complexity and, becoming lost,
Become trapped or overwhelmed;
But some enter and, focusing on what gives them
energy and joy, emerge into a
life-in-all-its-fullness,
Their guide for entering complexity
and emerging
many more times,
Each time the richer.

*Krista Tippett’s Becoming Wise;
**Rob Walker’s The Art of Noticing.

Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.*
Mary Oliver

What we imagine to be aesthetic preferences are really survival instincts honed over millennia, instincts that helped us find promising place to forage and rest.**
Annie Murphy Paul

It is likely that whilst you read this,
You are surrounded by the harsh, straight lines or
perfect circles
of human inventions.
Beyond our walls, another world calls to us;
Listen to it in birdsong,
Here and here.
Contact with the natural world releases
oxytocins in us, reducing anxiety, yet
we must also recognise that we have adapted too well
to unnatural surroundings, even
leaving some people over-anxious when in nature; as
Viktor Frankl has pointed out:
he retains a freedom,
the human freedom to adapt to his fate,
his environment,
in one way or another^.
We can do this life, but
it’s better with some deep nature in it.

*Rob Walker’s The Art of Noticing;
**Annie Murphy Paul’s The Extended Mind;
^Viktor Frankl’s Yes to Life.