Editor F. Lynne Bachleda has gathered quotations, poems, essays, and lines from movies in her quest to share the journey of finding the sacred in nature. One of the special elements of this anthology is an innovative system of icons to indicate elements (earth, water, air, and fire), seasons ( spring, summer, autumn, winter), or spiritual traditions (Buddhist, Confucian, Christian, Globally Indigenous, Hindu, Islamic, Jain, Judaic, Native American, Shinto, Sufi, or Taoist).
There are seven sections moving from "Desire and Need" to "Recognition and Compassion." Here is a sampler of the kind of material you will find here:
• "The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk with."
— Carl Sandburg
• "To encounter a truly wild animal on its own ground is to know the defeat of thought, to feel reason overpowered."
— Barry Lopez
• "All my life through, the new sights of nature made me rejoice like a child."
— Marie Curie
• "Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts."
— Rachel Carson
• "I think over again my small adventures,
My fears,
Those small ones that seemed so big,
For all the vital things
I had to get and reach;
And yet there is only one great thing,
The only thing,
To live to see the great day that dawns
and the light that fills the world."
— 19th century Inuit Native American
