“Heal yourself with the light of the sun and the rays of the moon. With the sound of the river and the waterfall. With the swaying of the sea and the fluttering of birds. Heal yourself with mint, neem, and eucalyptus. Sweeten with lavender, rosemary, and chamomile. Hug yourself with the cocoa bean and a hint of cinnamon. Put love in tea instead of sugar and drink it looking at the stars. Heal yourself with the kisses that the wind gives you and the hugs of the rain. Stand strong with your bare feet on the ground and with everything that comes from it. Be smarter every day by listening to your intuition, looking at the world with your forehead. Jump, dance, sing, so that you live happier. Heal yourself, with beautiful love, and always remember ... you are the medicine.”

— Maria Sabina 

"Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that this Nature he’s destroying is this God he’s worshiping."

— Hubert Reeves 

“The planet earth below us, solid ground, terra firma, is the supreme symbol for substance, mass, volume, strength, and stability. We organize space on the ground by the four cardinal directions of the compass and our body, dividing the circle of the horizon around us into four quarters in front and back of us, to the left and right. The four-cornered cross in a circle has long been the astronomical symbol for planet Earth. The four traditional winds blow across the four corners of the globe. We quarter not only space but time, naturally dividing the year into four seasons based on the relationship of the sun with the earth around the two equinoxes and two solstices. Fourness indicates association with the stable, solid earth. The ancient Egyptians symbolized this by showing four pillars arising from earth to support heaven. The Mayans likewise portrayed four beings as supporting the celestial roof. Regardless of the culture, the square was the preeminent symbol for the ancient Earth Mother goddess. The association of the earth with the number four, femaleness, and justice is very ancient, far preceding recorded history. The principles of the Tetrad describe her nourishing aspect: she gives birth, clothes her creations with material substance, and encourages their growth equally. The word nature comes from the Latin for “birth.” In the Navajo language, nature is called “Changing Woman.” The Navajo term for summer, then, is “Changing Woman’s happiness.” Mater, the Latin word for “mother,” has given rise to the word “matter,” also related to meter (“measure”) and matrix. The Latin word for father, pater, gave rise to “patron” and “pattern.” Thus, natural forms can be seen as coming from both a mother and father, the mating of matter and pattern. In the way that a mother provides nourishment for her developing child, the “world mother” is described in myths as nourishing the emergent archetypal patterns with matter, consisting of four types of food, called the four ancient elements: earth, water, air, and fire. These elements provided the mythopoeic way of referring to the modern scientific four states of matter: solids, liquids, gases, and plasma or electronic incandescence. The three denser states are familiar to everyone as ice, water, and steam. The fourth state, which the ancients called “fire,” is known today as “plasma,” the glowing electrified gases that “burn” in the sun and stars and cause the fiery glow within fluorescent lights and neon signs. We laugh at the simplicity of the ancient concept of just four “elements” comprising the world when today we recognize over one hundred varieties of atom. But no matter who looks at the world or when, we can find only four phases of mater, four clothings of nature .Nature unfolds these four states in a particular order. Ice must pass through its phase as water before it becomes steam. If you ever forget the correct order Plato gives in his Timaeus, just fill a jar with water, and soil, and air, and shake it up. The natural layering into which it settles will show you the order of the elements, or states: most dense earth on the bottom, then water, above that air, and, most ephemeral, light passing through.”

— The Beginner’s Guide To Constructing the Universe 

"A life without love is of no account. don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, eastern or western ... divisions only lead to more divisions. love has no labels, no definitions. it is what it is, pure and simple. love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! the universe turns differently when fire loves water.

— 40 Rules of Love (A Novel of Rumi)

“Slowing down allows us to practice empathy ... it’s not just about us finding balance with nature, it’s about nature also finding a balance with us."

—Jon  Ching | quoted on the Mushroom Hour, Episode 137

"The answers to life are out there surrounding us. You just have to be curious enough to find them." 

— Anonymous 

"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."

 — wise uber driver in los angeles

"If the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced it will be by ordinary people, people whose love for this life is even greater than their fear, people who can open to the web of life that called us into being, and who can rest in the vitality of that larger body."

— Joanna Macy