Respect And Care For God's Natural World

Walk in the woods and listen carefully,
for trees speak with the voice of God.
- George Washington Carver (paraphrase)

Find out how much God has given you
and from it take what you need;
the remainder is needed by others.
- Saint Augustine

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures
from the shelter of compassion and pity,
you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.
- St. Francis of Assisi

Show me your hands.
Do they have scars from giving?
Show me your feet.
Are they wounded in service?
Show me your heart.
Have you left a place for divine love?
- Fulton J. Sheen (Archbishop)

God expects us to care for His world -
to clean up our sewage and our industrial pollution -
to respect His forests and His wild animals.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Universal Sacrament of Compassion

Keep the Golden Rule

Confession of Sins

Unity in One Body and One Spirit
     

The true meaning of life

The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson

Plant trees for your great-grandchildren - for future generations. Create the legacy of a better world. Leave this world a better place than you found it. Literally planting trees for your great-grandchildren is a wonderful idea, but far more important... use this symbolism - this imagery - to represent the kind of legacy you want to leave to future generations.

A second meaning I find in today's wonderful quote, is the idea of being of service to groups of which you are not a member - for example, funding research for a disease to which your family carries no genetic disposition.

Further reading: Plant Trees For Your Grandchildren

Responsibility to Future Generations

How do You View the World?

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks - John Muir

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. - John Muir 

 All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking. - Friedrich Nietzsche 

 Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Let today be a day to spend time alone in nature. Take a walk as far from the hustle and bustle of society as you can. Walk near trees or water if it is possible. 

 Further reading: Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

New Year Suggestions

I thank everyone who added their New Year's Resolutions to the resolutions list.

For those who haven't yet created a focus for next year, let me offer a few suggestions...

1. Worry less and relax more.

2. Take better care of your body, not to meet someone else's standards of weight or shape, but strictly in order for you to feel your best.

3. Plant a tree for your great-grandchildren. While literally planting a tree is always a good project, I mean this suggestion symbolically. Consider, in everything you do, how your decisions and actions will impact the legacy you leave for future generations. How can you leave your family, the political system, the environment, the whole world, better than you found it?

Have a happy and safe New Year, and enjoy a wonderful 2010.

Further reading: We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children. - Native American traditional

Albert Pike: What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us.