When silence is a choice, it is an unnerving presence. When silence is imposed, it is censorship.
Terry Tempest WilliamsRead
Our kinship with Earth must be maintained; otherwise, we will find ourselves trapped in the center of our own paved-over souls with no way out.
Interpretation
We must nurture our connection with the Earth, or risk losing our essence.
Terry Tempest Williams emphasizes the importance of our relationship with the Earth, suggesting that neglecting this bond can lead to a disconnection from our true selves. Without a healthy kinship with nature, we may become trapped in a lifeless existence, devoid of meaning and fulfillment, symbolized by the 'paved-over souls' reference.
In practice
A speaker at an environmental conference could use this quote to stress the significance of preserving natural habitats.
When silence is a choice, it is an unnerving presence. When silence is imposed, it is censorship.
The human heart is the first home of democracy. It is where we embrace our questions: Can we be equitable? Can we be generous? Can we listen with our whole beings, not just our minds, and offer our attention rather than our opinion? And do we have enough resolve in our hearts to act courageously, relentlessly, without giving up, trusting our fellow citizens to join us in our determined pursuit-a living democracy?
Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn, and to sing at dusk, was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.
I am slowly, painfully discovering that my refuge is not found in my mother, my grandmother, of even the birds of Bear River. My refuge exists in my capacity to love. If I can learn to love death then I can begin to find refuge in change.
How do we remain faithful to our own spiritual imagination and not betray what we know in our own bodies? The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy.
The Eyes of the Future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time.
Nature does require her time of preservation, which perforce, I her frail son amongst my brethren mortal, must give my attendance to.
Only nature knows how to justly proportion to the fault the punishment it deserves.
Each evening, I ached for the shelter of my tent, for the smallest sense that something was shielding me from the entire rest of the world, keeping me safe not from danger, but from vastness itself. I loved the dim, clammy dark of my tent, the cozy familiarity of the way I arranged my few belongings all around me each night.
But there is always a November space after the leaves have fallen when she felt it was almost indecent to intrude on the woodsβ¦for their glory terrestrial had departed and their glory celestial of spirit and purity and whiteness had not yet come upon them.
The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful existence. It is nothing but love and emotion; it is the 'Living Infinite.
A man who lives with nature is used to violence and is companionable with death. There is more violence in an English hedgerow than in the meanest streets of a great city.
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