God's first act, as recounted in Genesis, is to speak; our first duty is to listen. The eyes may trick us into a sense of mastery, but the ears know better. Sight insists on separation; hearing, like touch or taste or smell, insists on connection. Close your eyes and sound enters you, like juice flowing through the green fuse of the flower, like the surge of dream or desire.
— Scott Russell Sanders, Hunting For Hope