When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it is tied to everything else in the universe.

Water is the softest thing, yet it can penetrate mountains and earth. This shows clearly the principle of softness overcoming hardness.

There’s much more in any given moment than we usually perceive, and that we ourselves are much more than we usually perceive. When you know that, part of you can stand outside the drama of your life.

popradské pleso, slovakia, 2010 (by lua-gira-sol)

(by Megan Brim)

Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.

penabranca:

©Penabranca

There is a story of a woman running away from tigers. She runs and runs, and the tigers are getting closer and closer. When she comes to the edge of a cliff, she sees some vines there, so she climbs down and holds on to the vines. Looking down, she sees that there are tigers below her as well. She then notices that a mouse is gnawing away at the vine to which she is clinging. She also sees a beautiful little bunch of strawberries close to her, growing out of a clump of grass. She looks up and she looks down. She looks at the mouse. Then she just takes a strawberry, puts it in her mouth, and enjoys it thoroughly. Tigers above, tigers below. This is actually the predicament that we are always in, in terms of our birth and death. Each moment is just what it is. It might be the only moment of our life, it might be the only strawberry we’ll ever eat. We could get depressed about it, or we could finally appreciate it and delight in the preciousness of every single moment of our life.

Anonymous asked: oh how i wish i could see you beautiful face, I think you are beautiful outside just as you are inside, share your beauty with us :) <3

aw shucks, my sweet starling, you’re the kindest :) but i must confess that i don’t feel comfortable sharing a photo of my face, just the thought of it stresses me out. forgive me. i’m such a silly lil’ creature and just have to get over such futile thoughts, i know. hope you may understand xxxxx

There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.

if
the ocean
can calm itself,
so can you.
we
are both
salt water
mixed with air.

John Ruskin