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Our home base is Western North Carolina, where we have 3 full months of each season, abundant flowers, creeks, black bears and salamanders. Some of us hail from the far north, which is also beautiful, home of pine trees and deep snow in February, and of a bright yellow late-evening light in the summer that is guaranteed to give you hope.
We find long walks with mountain dogs to be restorative. We appreciate clear, rushing creeks and fresh air. This daily/weekly commentary is called "The whole Salamander," the idea being that if you really got to know a salamander you would understand everything; as John Muir and the Dalai Lama have said, "everything's connected."
More specifically, Muir said: "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."
The Dalai Lama said: "Since form (phenomena) is emptiness and emptiness is form, then instead of a hand grasping at nothing, it is better to grasp at someone´s nose because this is closer to reality." (Although it is also true that we probably should not go around grasping at salamanders.)
Loren Eiseley said: “One could not pluck a flower without troubling a star.” The same can be said of a salamander, which is both a flower and a star in our view.
Oh, one more thing. Thich Nhat Hanh walks as if he were gliding across the surface of a still pond. I've never seen him do otherwise. That's like a salamander too.
Our home base is Western North Carolina, where we have 3 full months of each season, abundant flowers, creeks, black bears and salamanders. Some of us hail from the far north, which is also beautiful, home of pine trees and deep snow in February, and of a bright yellow late-evening light in the summer that is guaranteed to give you hope.
We find long walks with mountain dogs to be restorative. We appreciate clear, rushing creeks and fresh air. This daily/weekly commentary is called "The whole Salamander," the idea being that if you really got to know a salamander you would understand everything; as John Muir and the Dalai Lama have said, "everything's connected."
More specifically, Muir said: "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."
The Dalai Lama said: "Since form (phenomena) is emptiness and emptiness is form, then instead of a hand grasping at nothing, it is better to grasp at someone´s nose because this is closer to reality." (Although it is also true that we probably should not go around grasping at salamanders.)
Loren Eiseley said: “One could not pluck a flower without troubling a star.” The same can be said of a salamander, which is both a flower and a star in our view.
Oh, one more thing. Thich Nhat Hanh walks as if he were gliding across the surface of a still pond. I've never seen him do otherwise. That's like a salamander too.