When silence is a choice, it is an unnerving presence. When silence is imposed, it is censorship.
Terry Tempest WilliamsRead
Our kinship with Earth must be maintained; otherwise, we will find ourselves trapped in the center of our own paved-over souls with no way out.
Interpretation
We must nurture our connection with the Earth, or risk losing our essence.
Terry Tempest Williams emphasizes the importance of our relationship with the Earth, suggesting that neglecting this bond can lead to a disconnection from our true selves. Without a healthy kinship with nature, we may become trapped in a lifeless existence, devoid of meaning and fulfillment, symbolized by the 'paved-over souls' reference.
In practice
A speaker at an environmental conference could use this quote to stress the significance of preserving natural habitats.
When silence is a choice, it is an unnerving presence. When silence is imposed, it is censorship.
The human heart is the first home of democracy. It is where we embrace our questions: Can we be equitable? Can we be generous? Can we listen with our whole beings, not just our minds, and offer our attention rather than our opinion? And do we have enough resolve in our hearts to act courageously, relentlessly, without giving up, trusting our fellow citizens to join us in our determined pursuit-a living democracy?
Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn, and to sing at dusk, was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.
I am slowly, painfully discovering that my refuge is not found in my mother, my grandmother, of even the birds of Bear River. My refuge exists in my capacity to love. If I can learn to love death then I can begin to find refuge in change.
How do we remain faithful to our own spiritual imagination and not betray what we know in our own bodies? The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy.
The Eyes of the Future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time.
Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact itβs one of the most powerful things an individual can do - to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.
Nature has a great simplicity and therefore a great beauty.
He got out of bed and peeped through the blinds. To the east and opposite to him gardens and an apple-orchard lay, and there in strange liquid tranquility hung the morning star, and rose, rilling into the dusk of night the first grey of dawn. The street beneath its autumn leaves was vacant, charmed, deserted.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with August Over the grass in the West garden; They hurt me. I grow older.
I have often noticed how primate groups in their entirety enter a similar mood. All of a sudden, all of them are playful, hopping around. Or all of them are grumpy. Or all of them are sleepy and settle down. In such cases, the mood contagion serves the function of synchronizing activities.
The most important environmental issue is one that is rarely mentioned, and that is the lack of a conservation ethic in our culture.
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