Green Way

“I can tell you, then, that I am afraid of death. Not of what we imagine about death, for this fear is itself imaginary. Not of my death whose date will be recorded in the civic registers of the state. But of that death I suffer every moment, of the death of that voice which, out of the depths of my childhood keeps asking , as yours does: “What am I?” and which everything within us and around us seems bent of stifling. When this voice does not speak - and it does not speak often! - I am an empty carcass, a restless cadaver. I am afraid that one day it will fall silent forever, or that it will wake up too late - as in your story of the flies: when you wake up, you’re dead.”
- Rene Daumal, Mount Analogue, 1981

“In the garden the door is always open into the “holy” - growth, birth, death.
Every flower holds the whole mystery in its short cycle, and in the garden
we are never far away from death, the fertilizing, good, creative death.”
- May Sarton

Green Way Wisdom - Death

“It seems scientists and philosophers now agree which came first. The Egg. From the CNN article: ‘Put simply, the reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal’s life. Therefore the first bird that evolved into what we would call a chicken, probably in prehistoric times, must have first existed as an embryo inside an egg. Professor John Brookfield, a specialist in evolutionary genetics at the University of Nottingham, told the UK Press Association ‘the pecking order was clear.’

“Just like everybody else, we pagans live ordinary lives …. we know with a heart-thumping certainty
that the ordinary is as sacred as anything any sage ever set apart as holy or divine.”
- Barbara Ardinger, Pagan Every Day

“I am a bold and a Pagan soul,
A-ramblin’ through this land,
I judge the world by my own lights,
And I come by my own hand,
And if you ask me where I learned,
To live so recklessly
My skin, my bones, my
Heretic heart,
Are my authority.

My mother was a singer of tales,
My father a dreaming man,
And I have swung from the dragon’s tongue
And danced on Holy Land,
I’ve sung the seed up out of the ground,
And the bird down from the tree
My skin, my bones, my
Heretic heart
Are my authority.

I once was found but now I’m gone,
Away from the “Faithful Fold”,
Of those who preach that holiness,
Is to do as you are told,
Though law and scripture, priest and prayer,
Have all instructed me
My skin, my bones, my
Heretic heart
Are my authority.

Now they tell me Jesus loves me,
But I think that he loves in vain,
He must go unrequited,
On me he has no claim,
For the man who would command me must wear the horn and let me be.
My Goddess is the Lady Moon,
Whose tides run deep in me
My skin, my bones, my
Heretic heart
Are my authority.

And while I breathe this glorious air,
An outlaw I’ll remain,
My body will not be subdued,
And I will not be “saved,”
And if I cannot shout it loud, I’ll sing it secretly
My skin, my bones, my
Heretic heart
Are my authority.”
- Catherine Madsen, Heretic Heart

“Some keep the Sabbath going to Church,
I keep it staying at Home -
With a bobolink for a Chorister,
And an Orchard, for a Dome.”
- Emily Dickinson, No. 324, St. 1, 1862

Green Way Wisdom - Spirituality

“In the assemblies of the enlightened ones there have been many cases of mastering
the Way bringing forth the heart of plants and trees; this is what awakening the mind
for enlightenment is like. The fifth patriarch of Zen was once a pine-planting wayfarer;
Rinzai worked on planting cedars and pines on Mount Obaku. … Working with
plants, trees, fences and walls, if they practice sincerely they will attain enlightenment.”
- Dogen Zenji, Japanese Zen Buddhist Grand Master
Awakening the Unsurpassed Mind, #31

Green Way Wisdom - December

“I have come to terms with the future. From this day onward I will
walk easy on the earth. Plant trees. Kill no living things. Live in
harmony with all creatures. I will restore the earth where I am.
Use no more of its resources than I need. And listen, listen to
what it is telling me.”
- M. J. Slim Hooey

Harm Nobody, and Do What Thou Wilt.

Blessed Be

Winter Solstice, 2006

Desiderata
By Max Ehrmann
1952

“Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy. ”

Green Way Wisdom - Religion

When I woke up this morning, for some unknown reason, it took me a long time
to gain clear focus with my eyes. I washed them, rubbed them, exercised them,
drank a cup of coffee … finally, I could see clearly again.

“It has been said that if you could become another person for even a few moments
you would probably become Enlightened. So strong is our attachment to the idea
of who we are that even the smallest jolt out of it can have an immense effect.”
- Manjusvara

What would be your reaction be if the “new you” was blind or deaf? Our “idea of
who we are” is grounded in our body, and the limitations and possibilities of what
our bodies can do.

“Gertrude Jekyll, like Monet, was a painter with poor eyesight, and their gardens - his at
Giverny in the Seine valley, hers in Surrey - had resemblance’s that may have sprung from
this condition. Both loved plants that foamed and frothed over walls and pergolas, spread in
tides beneath trees; both saw flowers in islands of colored light - an image the normal eye
captures only by squinting.”
- Eleanor Perenyi, Green Thoughts, 1981

Green Way Wisdom - Seeing

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

- Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

Green Way Classics - Will

I’ve put together a webpage on the subject of Sacred Circles.

This webpage provides links, bibliographic citations, resources, quotations, notes, and comments on medicine wheels, henges, labyrinths, neopagan sacred circles, holy circles, the symbolism and myths about circles and spheres, the four elements, and related topics.

“Compare the silent rose of the sun
And rain, the blood-rose living in its smell,
With this paper, this dust.
That states the point.”
- Wallace Stevens

The peony
Made him measure it
With his fan.
- Issa
made to measure it
with a fan…
the peony
- Issa

“The way in which the peony is considered as the active source of the measuring of itself is not merely good psychology, but shows us how Issa looks upon the plant world and upon himself. Compared to that of the ordinary man, human beings and plants are much closer together in the thought-feeling world of Issa. The flower stands there in its color and glory. It does not bloom to be seen, nor does it wish to blush unseen. It is not dependent upon man, but neither is it independent of him. Its purposeless purpose is fulfilled in its blooming in solitude and silence, yet when no one is gazing upon it, it has no shape or color or fragrance. The flower needs the mind, and the mind needs the flower for its fulfillment. Issa emphasizes the power and activity of the peony not only because we live in an egocentric, homocentric world, valueless and unpoetical, but also because he wishes to bring out the special nature of the peony, its power and magnificence, its lofty splendor. Is this splendor in the flower? Does Issa cause the flower to be measured, or does the flower cause Issa to measure it?”
- R. H. Blyth, Haiku, Volume 3, Summer-Autumn

Green Way Wisdom - R. H. Blyth

Dance

Written by a teenager fighting the effects of cancer.

“Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask “How are you?”
Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?

You’d better slow down
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.

Ever told your child,
We’ll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say,”Hi!”

You’d better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift….
Thrown away.

Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.”

Green Way Wisdom - Living Fully

“A stranger here
Strange things doth meet, strange glories see;
Strange treasures lodged in this fair world appear,
Strange all, and new to me.
But that they mine should be, who nothing was,
That strangest is of all, yet brought to pass.”
- Thomas Traherne (1637-1674)
The Salutation

“Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Green Way Widsom - Spirituality