“Overconsumption is a "cancer eating away at our spiritual vitals." It cuts the heart right out of our compassion. It distances us from the great masses of broken bleeding humanity. It converts us into materialists. We become less able to ask moral questions. For example, just because we have the economic muscle to buy up vast amounts of the world's oil, does that give us the right to do so? When the poor farmer of India is unable to buy a gallon of gasoline to run his simple water pump because the world's demand has priced him out of the market, who is to blame?” WorldGivingHeartDoeRunningAbleSpiritualHumanityAsksWaterSimplePoorCompassionMoralCuttingEconomicExampleBrokenAmountDemandEatingMassIndiaBlameDistanceCancerOilMusclesFarmersConsumerismBleedingPumpsOverconsumptionGasolineGallons Author:Richard J. Foster
“It seems that the ancient Medicine Men understood that listening to another's story somehow gives us the strength of example to carry on, as well as showing us aspects of ourselves we can't easily see. For listening to the stories of others - not to their precautions or personal commandments - is a kind of water that breaks the fever of our isolation. If we listen closely enough, we are soothed into remembering our common name.” IfsMenGivingWellsKindEnoughStoriesSeemsRememberNamesWaterCommonBreakExampleListeningUnderstoodAspectMedicineAncientIsolationCommandmentsFeverPrecaution Author:Mark Nepo
“Never, never do I set to work on a canvas in the state it comes in from the shop. I provoke accidents - a form, a splotch of color. Any accident is good enough. I let the matiere decide. Then I prepare a ground by, for example, wiping my brushes on the canvas. Letting fall some drops of turpentine on it would do just as well. If I want to make a drawing I crumple the sheet of paper or I wet it; the flowing water traces a line and this line may suggest what is to come next.” IfsWantWellsMayStatesEnoughFormFallNextWaterLinesExampleColorPaperAccidentsDrawingShopsGood EnoughWetCanvasProvokingBrushesSheetsFlowing Water Author:Joan Miro
“Ancient traditions have long associated holy wells and springs as very special places of the Goddess or anima mundi: symbolic of the Great Mother and associated with birth, the feminine principle, the universal womb, the prima materia, the waters of fertility and refreshment and the fountain of life. The dreaming sites, as they are called, have also been associated with visions, healing, and other paranormal experiences. In ancient Greece, for example, there were more than three-hundred medical centers placed at water sources, where patients experienced healing.” LifeWellsLongDreamMotherThreeWaterHealingVisionPrinciplesSpecialExampleSourceBirthHolySpringHundredRainTraditionRiversUniversalPatientAncientMedicalParanormalFeminineGoddessSiteFountainWombGreeceSymbolicSpecial PlacesFertilityAncient GreeceRefreshmentsGreat Mother Author:Christopher McDowell
“Just what is it that America stands for? If she stands for one thing more than another, it is for the sovereignty of self-governing people, and her example, her assistance, her encouragement, has thrilled two continents in this western world with all those fine impulses which have built up human liberty on sides of the water. She stands, therefore, as an example of independence, as an example of free institutions, and as an example of disinterested international action in the main tenets of justice.” PeopleIfsWorldHumansTwoSelfActionAmericaSidesWaterJusticeLibertyOne ThingExampleFineBuiltEncouragementIndependenceInstitutionsWesternInternationalImpulseContinentsAssistanceSovereigntyGoverningWestern WorldDisinterested Author:Woodrow Wilson
“The river, for example, is the living symbol of all the life it sustains or nourishes - fish, aquatic insects, water ouzels, otter, fisher, deer, elk, bear, and all other animals, including man, who are dependent on it or who enjoy it for its sight, its sound, or its life. The river as plaintiff speaks for the ecological unit of life that is part of it.” MenSpeakEnjoySoundWaterAnimalExampleBearsRiversSightEnvironmentalIncludingFishesSymbolsDependentUnitsInsectsEcologicalDeerOttersElk Author:William O. Douglas
“... laws governing pollution tend to move pollutants from one medium to another. So, for example, we scrub SO2 from power plants only to dispose toxic sludge on land. We "clean" water only to disperse toxic-laced solids on farmland or landfills. Pollution control becomes a kind of giant shell game by which we move pollutants between air, water, groundwater, and land.” KindMovingLawGamesWaterAirLandExampleCleanPlantEnvironmentalMediumsGiantsToxicPollutionShellsGoverningClean WaterPower PlantsFarmlandLandfillsPollution ControlGroundwater Book:Hope Is an Imperative: The Essential David Orr Source: Hope Is an Imperative: The Essential David Orr
“We can decide that the presence of cancer-causing substances in our air, water, and food is too expensive. A 2009 study, for example, has found that coal miners in Appalachia costs the region five times more in premature deaths, including from cancer, than it provides to the region in jobs, taxes, and economic benefits. In California, the production and use of hazardous chemicals cost the state $2.6 billion in 2004 alone in lost wages and health-care expenses to treat workers and children with pollution-linked diseases.” ChildrenStatesUseCareJobsFoundLostWaterStudyFiveAirEconomicExampleCostTaxesDiseaseBenefitsTreatsEnvironmentalWorkersIncludingCancerProductionsBillionsHealth CareSubstanceCaliforniaExpensiveRegionsExpensesChemicalsPollutionWagesCoalLinkedPrematureMinersAppalachiaCoal MinersPremature Death Author:Sandra Steingraber
“By numberless examples it will evidently appear that human affairs are as subject to change and fluctuation as the waters of the sea agitated by the winds.” HumansWaterSeaSubjectsExampleWindAffairFluctuation Author:Francesco Guicciardini