An owl sound wandered along the road with me. I didn't hear it--I breathed it into my ears.
Interpretation
This quote expresses a deep connection with nature, showcasing the importance of truly experiencing the world around us.
William Stafford's quote illustrates how nature can become an integral part of our sensory experience. By describing how he 'breathed' the owl's sound into his ears, Stafford conveys a sense of mindfulness and awareness, emphasizing that true engagement with our surroundings can evoke profound feelings of connection and serenity. This reflective approach invites us to be present in the moment and fully appreciate the subtleties of the natural world.
In practice
This quote can be used in a nature appreciation workshop to encourage participants to engage with their environment.
I keep following this sort of hidden river of my life, you know, whatever the topic or impulse which comes, I follow it along trustingly. And I don't have any sense of its coming to a kind of crescendo, or of its petering out either. It is just going steadily along.
They miss the whisper that runs any day in your mind, "Who are you really, wanderer?"-- and the answer you have to give no matter how dark and cold the world around you is: "Maybe I'm a king.
A speech is something you say so as to distract attention from what you do not say.
The things you do not have to say make you rich. Saying things you do not have to say weakens your talk. Hearing things you do not need to hear dulls your hearing. And things you know before you hear them β those are you, those are why you are in the world.
A poem is a serious joke, a truth that has learned jujitsu.
So, the world happens twice--_x000D_ once what we see it as;_x000D_ second it legends itself_x000D_ deep, the way it is.
I think probably one of the important things that happened to me was growing up in Idaho in the mountains, in the woods, and having a very strong presence of the wilderness around me. That never felt like emptiness. It always felt like presence.
I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.
The _x000D_ Earth would die_x000D_ If the sun stopped kissing her.
Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.
On the batβs back I do fly After summer merrily.
Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees, So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray For the Glory of the Garden, that it may not pass away!
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