So be patient with the events in life that find you feeling disappointed, and remember each line we script in the Great Play we call life, is a line that is never wasted, and a line that can ultimately lead to something more beautiful than we can ever possibly imagine in the present. This is true for each one of us.
-Tim Watson
The universe will reward you for taking risks on its behalf.
- Shakti Gawain
You too are a Medicine Wheel, and the magic of your Perceiving will be unfolded.
- Hyemeyohsts Storm
“I salute the light within your eyes where the whole universe dwells. For when you are at the center within you and I am at that place within me, we shall be One.”
Spoken by Chief Crazy Horse, September, 1877.
Think of yourself as an incandescent power, illuminated and perhaps forever talked to by God and his messengers.
- Brenda Ueland
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
-Albert Einstein
The entire Creation still follows the Original Instructions of life. The Tree, the fruits, they never fail.
They never make a mistake to bring their fruits in their season.
The Animals never make a mistake.
They still live as they were created.
Among the Creation…Life, the Circle, a measurement with no beginning and no ending.
- Phillip Deere (Muskogee Creek 1977)
In a dark time, the eye begins to see.
-Theodore Roethke
What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope. —Wendell Berry
” A wee child toddling in a wonder world , , , I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan.”
- Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Redbird)
Every element of creation expresses the Creator. Within each mountain, each stone, and each heart lies the Great Spirit… When looking upon a sunset, the trees, or even your worst enemy, you are looking at the Creator. Know this and give praise and prayer.
- Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Redbird)
Earth Charter
The Earth Charter is an international declaration of fundamental values and principles considered useful by its supporters for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. Created by a global consultation process, and endorsed by thousands of organizations representing millions of people, the Charter “seeks to inspire in all peoples a sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the human family, the greater community of life, and future generations.”
Since its conceptual inception at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992, drafting of the text was done during a six-year worldwide consultation process (1994-2000).
The New Monk Project is dedicated to supporting and encouraging individuals and organizations who have adopted, or feel moved to adopt, these principles:
I. Respect and Care for the Community of Life
1. Respect Earth and life in all its diversity.
2. Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion and love.
3. Build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable and peaceful.
4. Secure Earth’s bounty and beauty for present and future generations.
II. Ecological Integrity
5. Protect and restore the integrity of Earth’s ecological systems, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life.
6. Prevent harm as the best method of environmental protection and, when knowledge is limited, apply a precautionary approach.
7. Adopt patterns of production, consumption and reproduction that safeguard Earth’s regenerative capacities, human rights and community well-being.
8. Advance the study of ecological sustainability and promote the open exchange and wide application of the knowledge acquired.
III. Social and Economic Justice
9. Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social and environmental imperative.
10. Ensure that economic activities and institutions at all levels promote human development in an equitable and sustainable manner.
11. Affirm gender equality and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development and ensure universal access to education, health care and economic opportunity.
12. Uphold the right of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health and spiritual well-being, with special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities.
IV. Democracy, Nonviolence, and Peace
13. Strengthen democratic institutions at all levels, and provide transparency and accountability in governance, inclusive participation in decision-making, and access to justice.
14. Integrate into formal education and lifelong learning the knowledge, values and skills needed for a sustainable way of life.
15. Treat all living beings with respect and consideration.
16. Promote a culture of tolerance, nonviolence and peace.