Inspiration for the day

Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons.
It is to grow in the open air, and to eat and sleep with the earth.
- Walt Whitman

Give me strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is.
- Black Elk

So will I build my altar in the fields,
And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be,
And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields
Shall be the incense I will yield to thee.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge



The earth laughs at him who calls a place his own.
- Hindustani Saying

It is only when we are aware of the earth
and of the earth as poetry that we truly live.
- Henry Beston



There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
there is rapture in the lonely shore,
there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea,
and music in its roar; I love not Man the less,
but Nature more.
- Lord Byron




The green earth sends her incense up.
From many a mountain shrine;
From folded leaf and dewey cup
She pours her sacred wine.
- John Greenleaf Whittier

In order for something to become clean,
something else must become dirty.
- Imbesi

We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.
- Ancient Indian Proverb



To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is
more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.
- Helen Keller

I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her
who shall be complete,
The earth remains jagged and broken only to him or her
who remains jagged and broken.
- Walt Whitman

The farther we get away from the land, the greater our insecurity.
- Henry Ford



To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.
- Mahatma Gandhi

A man's feet should be planted in his country,
but his eyes should survey the world.
- George Santayana

It was not until we saw the picture of the earth, from the moon,
that we realized how small and how helpless this planet is -
something that we must hold in our arms and care for.
- Margaret Mead



Keep your eyes on the stars, keep your feet on the ground.
- Theodore Roosevelt

We have nowhere else to go ... this is all we have.
- Margaret Mead



I have sat here happy in the gardens,
Watching the still pool and the reeds
And the dark clouds....
But though I greatly delight
In these and the water lilies,
That which sets me nighest to weeping
Is the rose and white colour of the smooth flag-stones,
And the pale yellow grasses
Among them.
- Richard Aldington




The word humility (also human) is derived
from the Latin humus, meaning "the soil."
Perhaps this is not simply because it entails stooping
and returning to earthly origins, but also because, as we
are rooted in thisearth of everyday life, we find in it
all the vitality and fertility unnoticed
by people who merely tramp on across the surface,
drawn by distant landscapes.
- Piero Ferrucci



Earth, my dearest, I will. Oh believe me, you no longer
need your springtimes to win me over - one of them,
ah, even one, is already too much for my blood.
Unspeakably, I have belonged to you, from the first.
- Rainer Maria Rilke




I pledge devotion to the earth, our one and only home,
and to the life this earth sustains;
one nation, one spirit indivisible,
with freedom and fulfillment for all.
- Bruce Hagen, New Pledge of Allegiance, 1983




Earth teach me to forget myself
as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me resignation
as the leaves which die in the fall.
Earth teach me courage as the tree which stands all alone.
Earth teach me regeneration as the seed which rises in the spring.
- William Alexander







This weekend was an amazing recharge for me.
I spent Friday night indulging on delicious hard cider at an Irish pub in Evanston, catchin up with one of my best friends, Alexa. We saw "Up in the Air" with George Clooney, which was both happy and sad, and then we headed over to one of the cutest coffee spots called Kaffein and got zombies, chias, and some apple torte.... oh and a green tea shake. Its pretty impossible only to order one thing there. I am so craving a Zombie right now. MMmmmmm coffee.

Saturday was a long night of laughing, good friends, and great music at the monthly Freakeasy get together. Two nights of getting in past 2am had me sleeping like a baby Sunday morning.
Ken and I decided to spend the rest of the day working on home projects, but not without a trip to Borders to pick up this years Moon Sign Book. I get his book every January. And it's hard to put down once you get it in your hands. It's basically a gardeners almanac with astrological guidance. It doesn't stop at gardening however, it's an amazing resource for planning; financially, socially, romantically, whatever you can think of.



And of course, if you know me, I cant ever just walk into a book store and walk out with ONE book. So I brought home two more.



The rest of Sunday night I spent delving into the mind of Carol Rushman. With the way this woman writes, she could very well become one of my favorite astrologers. Just about every read page has already been violated with pink highlighter. I brought it with me on the train today and can't wait to get back in it on the way home :)

I've been reading and growing my collection of books since I was 12, but the great thing about this subject is there's always something new to learn, or to refresh yourself on.
If I somehow counted all my astrology books and there were more than 20, I wouldn't be surprised...

If only I had a week of no commitments to just read nonstop,
I most definately would.
I suppose for now, train rides will just have to do.