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Quote by Gretel Ehrlich

Work

Islands, the universe, home

This book delves into the unique characteristics and cultural significance of islands, their role in the broader universe, and their impact on human society and identity. more

Author

Gretel Ehrlich
Gretel Ehrlich

Gretel Ehrlich is an American writer known for her profound insights into the relationship between humans and the natural world. Her works are typically presented in the form of poetry and prose, exploring the complex relationship between humans and the natural world. more

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“The Mississippi River carries the mud of thirty states and two provinces 2,000 miles south to the delta and deposits 500 million tons of it there every year. The business of the Mississippi, which it will accomplish in time, is methodically to transport all of Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico.”

“Innumerable as the stars of night, Or stars of morning, dewdrops which the sun Impearls on every leaf and every flower.”

“Life processes take place in an aqueous medium. All organisms are composed mostly of water, whether they dwell in the oceans, lakes, and rivers, or on the land. Because the physical and chemical properties of water are well suited to the requirements of life, it is no accident that life is a water-based phenomenon.”

“Passions are likened best to floods and streams: The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb.”

“Water is the formless potential out of which creation emerged. It is the ocean of unconsciousness enveloping the islands of consciousness. Water bathes us at birth and again at death, and in between it washes away sin. It is by turns the elixir of life or the renewing rain or the devastating flood.”

“Day after day we looked for rain, and day after day we saw nothing but the sun. Lavender that we had planted in the spring died. The patch of grass in front of the house abandoned its ambitions to become a lawn and turned into the dirty yellow of poor straw. The earth shrank, revealing its knuckles and bones, rocks and roots that had been invisible before.”

“In the time that I have been acquainted with this region I have become increasingly aware of it as a testament of water, the origin and guide of its contours and gradients and of all the lives - the plants and small creatures, and the culture - that evolved here. That was always here to be seen, of course, and the recognition has forced itself, in one form or other, upon people in every part of the world who have been directly involved with the growing of living things. The gardener who ignores it is soon left with no garden.”