Worn and Dusty ~ Henry David Thoreau

“It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear, that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!” 

~ Henry David Thoreau

More at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau

Artwork from Richard Bawden
 http://www.birchamgallery.co.uk/catalogue/artist/Richard:Bawden/biography/?category=

Another Way of Life ~ Claudio Oliver

"We called ourselves 'urban farmers' not because it sounded trendy, but because that was the best way we found to express our loyalty to the God of creation. We have no loyalty to the false god called 'market' and its mediator 'money'. Through gardening and composting, we create a new relationship with animals and plants: we are affirming another way of life, where the  rhythms and balance of creation can express the freedom the Creator has promised us."

~ Claudio Oliver

More at http://www.plough.com/en/ebooks/qr/plough-quarterly-no-4

Artwork from Peter Nevins http://www.peternevins.com/

We Love the Soil ~ Eberhard Arnold

"We love the body because it is a consecrated dwelling place of the Spirit. We love the soil because God’s Spirit spoke and created the earth, and because he called it out of its uncultivated natural state so that it might be cultivated by the communal work of man. We love physical work – the work of muscle and hand – and we love the craftsman’s art, in which the spirit guides the hand. In the way spirit and hand work through each other we see the mystery of community. We love the activity of mind and spirit, too: the richness of all the creative arts and the exploration of the intellectual and spiritual interrelationships in history and in humanity’s destiny of peace. Whatever our work, we must recognize and do the will of God in it. God – the creative Spirit – has formed nature, and he has entrusted the earth to us, his sons and daughters, as an inheritance but also as a task: our garden must become his garden, and our work must further his kingdom."

Eberhard Arnold http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eberhard_Arnold

Artwork from Erich Pehap http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Pehap

Be a Little Like the Farmer~ Paul Newman

“We are such spendthrifts with our lives, the trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with the least fuss you can muster. I'm not running for sainthood. I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer, who puts back into the soil what he takes out.”

~ Paul Newman

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Newman

Artwork from Walt Curlee  http://www.waltcurleeart.com/

Agrarian Art ~ Gene Logsdon

"As a working definition of art, I lean toward Tolstoy's: "Art is a human activity having for it's purpose the transmission to other of the highest and best feelings to which mankind has risen." It seems to me that, regarding agrarian art, the farther it moves away from the natural world, especially when the main goal is money profits, the more difficult it becomes for it to reflect "the highest and best feelings" of humanity. The same is true of, of course, of agriculture itself. The farther it tries to remove itself from nature in search of money, the more it moves away from the highest and healthiest kinds of food.” 

~ Gene Logsdon

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Logsdon

Artwork from Jan Ritchie http://www.artweeks.org/galleries/2014/jan-ritchie-woa