Who and What Inspires Me

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 “We Americans are reluctant to learn a foreign language of our own species, let alone another species. But imagine the possibilities. Imagine the access we would have to different perspectives, the things we might see through other eyes, the wisdom that surrounds us. We don’t have to figure out everything by ourselves: there are intelligences other than our own, teachers all around us. Imagine how much less lonely the world would be.”  Robin Wall Kimmerer from Braiding Sweetgrass. 

“Our indigenous herbalists say to pay attention when plants come to you; they’re bringing you something you need to learn.” Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass.

 “The land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness.” Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass. 

 "People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation. 

“To return to the body is also to come back to earth, understood not as a land, but as an event that, in the end, fundamentally defies the boundaries of states. Understood in this way, the earth belongs to all its inhabitants, without distinction of race, origin, ethnicity, religion, or even species. It pays no attention to the blind individual or to the naked singularity. It reminds us how much each body, human or otherwise, however singular it may be, bears on and in itself, in its essential porosity, the marks not of the diaphanous universal, but of commonality and incalculability.” Achille Mbembe from Meditation on the Second Creation.

“Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.” Martin Luther King Jr.

“We are not just a skin-encapsulated ego, a soul encased in flesh. We are each other and we are the world.” Charles Eisenstein from The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible.

“All you need to do is turn on the news, and in five minutes, you're depressed with the state of the world. Choosing joy is a completely active choice. It doesn't just happen. You can't just say, 'I want to be happy.' You have to take action.” Billy Porter, Musician and Broadway Star.

"I've been searching for ways to heal myself, and I've found that kindness is the best way." Lady Gaga: Musician, Actress, and Philanthropist.

"A faith that is not the sister of justice is bound to bring people to grief. It thwarts creation, a divinely given possibility; it robs them of their birthright of freedom in an open universe; it robs the community of the spiritual richness latent in its members; it reduces the person to a best of burden in slavish subservience to a state, a church, or a party—a god made by human hands." John Luther Adams from "A Faith for the Free."

“To return to the body is also to come back to earth, understood not as a land, but as an event that, in the end, fundamentally defies the boundaries of states. Understood in this way, the earth belongs to all its inhabitants, without distinction of race, origin, ethnicity, religion, or even species. It pays no attention to the blind individual or to the naked singularity. It reminds us how much each body, human or otherwise, however singular it may be, bears on and in itself, in its essential porosity, the marks not of the diaphanous universal, but of commonality and incalculability.” Achille Mbembe from Meditation on the Second Creation.