Tough Times ~ Monica

"Have you noticed that empathy-producing experiences are great vehicles to channel our love? You can form an immediate kinship with someone who has walked in your shoes, and intuitively know the best way to support them. Believe me, if I ever encounter a mother of small children who is laid up with a broken ankle, I would be able to name ten needs off the top of my head and how to fill them. Also, if your dog ever got sprayed in the head by a skunk at six in the morning while you were trying to pull him out from under a pallet where the skunk was hiding, come talk to me. Tough times not only soften our hearts, but show us how to serve. A true gift will express appreciation, lighten a load, or add value to another person. What a relief that I don't have to shop for it. What a joy to know that we are here to be needed and purposeful, a shining light on the journey."

~ Monica

More at the outstanding blog http://www.blueskiesandshooflypies.com/

Not sure about the artwork, but it may be Alkliso Farrell
http://www.drawdrawdraw.com/

Our true Nature ~ Alice Reinheimer

"We take in the energy of the food we eat and it colors the energy we put out to the world. The world is increasingly full of empty food, food that was grown for maximum profit rather than as a source of nourishment. Empty food robs us of our vital energy and keeps us from fulfilling our intention. We’ve all felt dull and lifeless after a bout of eating crap food, unable to move or think clearly. This is our energy being robbed. This is our life force ebbing.

Many of us realize that we are not just our physical form, not just the thoughts in our minds, not just the biochemical reactions in our brains. We are not our ideas, or memories, or even our connection with others. We realize that we are indeed empty of Self. The paradox is that this ultimate view of our true nature rests on the relative truth that we are indeed made of substance and energy, based and rooted in the Earth and in our community. When we eat we are connecting our true nature to the sublime.

So why is it that we so often forget that eating is a sacred act? Why do we mindlessly stuff ourselves with food we know is not good for us?..........

When we have an intention to wake up and see things as they really are, we can eat to support our intention. We can feel how food nourishes us both in body and in spirit. We can feel how we are indeed part of the Earth and humanity and the greater energies. We can see how food grown in a way that nourishes and support the Earth is beneficial to more than just the land it was grown on. Its influence spreads out in transformational ripples. Every meal we can come back to our intention and reaffirm our connection to the Earth. If we forget or fall off, that’s not a problem, we simply come back and start again."

~ Alice Reinheimer

More at http://soilandhealth.org/blog-post/eating-as-a-sacred-act/

Artwork from  Michael Woloschinow
 http://thesoutherngallery.co.uk/artist-profile/michael-woloschinow

Free Gifts ~ James Fennimore Cooper

"The air, the water and the ground are free gifts to man and no one has the power to portion them out in parcels. Man must drink and breathe and walk and therefore each man has a right to his share of each."

~ James Fennimore Cooper

More at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fenimore_Cooper

Artwork from Hannah Firmin http://www.hannahfirmin.com/

Part of Nature ~ Robertson Davies

“The recognition of oneself as a part of nature, and reliance on natural things, are disappearing for hundreds of millions of people who do not know that anything is being lost.” 

~ Robertson Davies 

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertson_Davies
 (An all time favorite author of mine.)

Artwork from Mark Herald 
http://www.birchamgallery.co.uk/catalogue/artist/Mark:Hearld/biography/

Dead Leaves ~ John Ruskin

"Do not think of your faults, still less of other's faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes."

~ John Ruskin

More at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ruskin

Artwork from Wuon-Gean Ho
 https://www.eastlondonprintmakers.co.uk/author/wuon-gean-ho/

'Is This All There Is? ~ Bill McKibben

“We speak often, and sentimentally, of being 'enchanted' by the natural world. But what if it's the other way around? What if we are enchanted, literally, by the human world we live in? That seems entirely more likely - that the consumer world amounts to a kind of lulling spell, chanted tunefully and eternally by the TV, the billboard, the suburb. A spell that convinces us that the things we want most from the world are comfort, convenience, security. A spell that by now we sing to each other. A spell that, should it start to weaken, we try to strengthen with medication, with consumption, with noise. A slight frantic enchantment, one that has to get louder all the time to block out the troubling question constantly forming in the back of our minds: 'Is this all there is?”

~ Bill McKibben

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_McKibben

Artwork from Mark Herald
http://www.birchamgallery.co.uk/catalogue/artist/Mark:Hearld/biography/

Being Alone with our Thoughts~ Carl Honoré

“In this media-drenched, data-rich, channel-surfing, computer-gaming age, we have lost the art of doing nothing, of shutting out the background noise and distractions, of slowing down and simply being alone with our thoughts.”

~ Carl Honoré

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Honor%C3%A9

Artwork from  William Tolliver http://artbywilliamtolliver.com/William_Tolliver_Biography.html

Something was Going to Happen ~ Jean Webster

“I ate breakfast in the kitchen by candle-light, and then drove the five miles to the station through the most glorious October colouring. The sun came up on the way, and the swamp maples and dogwood glowed crimson and orange and the stone walls and cornfields sparkled with hoar frost; the air was keen and clear and full of promise. I knew something was going to happen. ” 

~ Jean Webster

More at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Webster

Artwork from Niki Bowers http://www.cambridgegallery.co.uk/nikibowers/

One Solution ~Bill Mollison

"There is one, and only one solution, and we have almost no time to try it. We must turn all our resources to repairing the natural world, and train all our young people to help. They want to; we need to give them this last chance to create forests, soils, clean waters, clean energies, secure communities, stable regions, and to know how to do it from hands-on experience."

~Bill Mollison

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mollison

Artwork by Jane Dignum https://www.janedignum.com/

Ultimately Subversive~ Carol Deppe

" There is nothing we can do that is ultimately subversive - there is no act of gardening that is so profound a rebellion, there is no act of eating that is so potent a blow for food quality and food system sanity - as to take back the corn crop in our own backyards, and grow, breed, eat, and save seed of corn based upon an entirely different set of values.” 

~ Carol Deppe

More at http://www.caroldeppe.com/

Artwork from Clare Leighton

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Leighton

Demands of a very Practical Sort ~ Evelyn Underhill

"Never let yourself think that because G_d has given you many things to do for Him, pressing routine jobs, a life full up with duties and demands of a very practical sort---that all these need separate you from communion with Him. G_d is always coming to you in the Sacrament of the Present Moment. Meet and receive Him there with gratitude in that sacrament; however unexpected its outward form may we receive Him in every sight and sound, joy, pain, opportunity and sacrifice."

~Evelyn Underhill

More at
Artwork from Wanda Gág https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanda_G%C3%A1g 

Keeping up With the Crowd. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

“We who live in quiet places have the opportunity to become acquainted with ourselves, to think our own thoughts and live our own lives in a way that is not possible for those keeping up with the crowd.” 

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Ingalls_Wilder

Artwork from Mary Azarian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Azarian

Life Is Not Orderly ~ Natalie Goldberg

  "Life is not orderly. No matter how we try to make life so, right in the middle of it we die, lose a leg, fall in love, drop a jar of applesauce. In summer, we work hard to make a tidy garden, bordered by pansies with rows or clumps of columbine, petunias, bleeding hearts. Then we find ourselves longing for the forest, where everything has the appearance of disorder; yet we feel peaceful there."

Natalie Goldberg

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Goldberg

Artwork from Valerie Lueth & Paul Roden at http://www.tugboatprintshop.com/

Day- Brightener ~ Monica

 " Wouldn't it be refreshing to discover that you had been a blessing to someone, regardless of their preconceived notions? If meeting you bypassed their own ideas of what they imagined you might believe or what things about them you might hold in disapproval? My prayer is that those who meet me will ignore the externals and material distractions of this world so they can see a pure heart who wants to know and love them. I want to be an unexpected delight and day-brightener to others! "

~ Monica

More at the wonderful blog http://www.blueskiesandshooflypies.com/

Artwork from Aijung Kim  http://aijungkim.com/home.html

Know What You're Hoping ~ Piet Hein

“Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,
and you're hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find, 
is simply by spinning a penny.
No - not so that chance shall decide the affair
while you're passively standing there moping; 
but the moment the penny is up in the air,
you suddenly know what you're hoping. ” 

~ Piet Hein

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Hein_(scientist)

Artwork by Linda Marrinon https://www.mca.com.au/collection/artist/marrinon-linda/

Can and Must ~Walter James

"Give and you shall receive, is not sentimental idealism, it is a simple, practical rule. That which we can and must give to the land is work, And if that work is given in love it will not be drudgery."

~Walter James

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_James,_4th_Baron_Northbourne

Artwork from Carl Larsson  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Larsson

Spontaneous Pleasures ~ C.S. Lewis

"Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are ‘patches of Godlight’ in the woods of our experience.” 

~ C.S. Lewis

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis

 Artwork from Louis McNally 
 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/louis-mcnallys-landscapes-of-scotland-picture-preview-2300144.html#gallery

An Act of Culture ~ Michael Pollan

“The shared meal elevates eating from a mechanical process of fueling the body to a ritual of family and community, from the mere animal biology to an act of culture.”  ~ Michael Pollan

More at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Pollan

Artwork from Emmy Lou Packard   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmy_Lou_Packard

Affirming of Others ~ Desmond Tutu

“A person with ubuntu * is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.” 

~ Desmond Tutu

*Ubuntu (Zulu pronunciation: [ùɓúntʼù]) is a Nguni Bantu term meaning "humanity". It is often also translated as "humanity towards others", but is often used in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity" Source Wikipedia

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu

Artwork from Maggie Laubser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggie_Laubser

At the Bottom of your Garden ~David Attenborough

"It's about cherishing the woodland at the bottom of your garden or the stream that runs through it. It affects every aspect of life."

~David Attenborough

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough

Artwork from Gordon Mortensen

http://www.artline.com/artists/dealers_artists/index.php?artist=mortensen-gordon

Beneath Our Feet ~ William Bryant Logan

“We spend our lives hurrying away from the real, as though it were deadly to us. “It must be somewhere up there on the horizon,” we think. And all the time it is in the soil, right beneath our feet.” 

~  William Bryant Logan

More at http://williambryantlogan.com/about/

Artwork from Louise Stebbing http://www.westnorfolkartists.org/louisestebbing/index.htm

Flesh Out the Meaning ~ Richard J Foster

I want to list ten controlling principles for the outward expression of simplicity. They should not be viewed as laws, but as one attempt to flesh out the meaning of simplicity into twentieth-century life.

First, buy things for their usefulness rather than their status. 

Second, reject anything that is producing an addiction in you. 

Third, develop a habit of giving things away. De-accumulate. 

Fourth, refuse to be propagandized by the custodians of modern gadgetry. 

Fifth, learn to enjoy things without owning them. 

Sixth, develop a deeper appreciation for the creation. 

Seventh, look with a healthy scepticism at all ‘buy now, pay later’ schemes. 

Eighth, obey Jesus’ injunction about plain, honest speech. 

Ninth, reject anything that will breed the oppression of others. 

Tenth, shun whatever would distract you from your main goal.

Richard J Foster

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Foster_(theologian)

Artwork from Charles W. Smith  https://chpn.net/2011/07/06/the-block-prints-of-charles-w-smith/