Rumi

"There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled. There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled. You feel it, don't you?"

Jr.

"One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of the status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. But today our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change."

Erika Harris

"I frequently-regularly-often trip while reaching for my high ideals. Then I giggle, or cry, and get back up."

Warrior King

"Our earth is wounded. Her oceans and lakes are sick; her rivers are like running sores; The air is filled with subtle posions. And the oily smoke of countless hellish fires blackens the sun. Men and women, scattered from homeland, family, friends, wander desolate and uncertain, scorched by a toxic sun...
In this desert of frightened, blind uncertainty, some take refuge in the pursuit of power. Some become manipulators of illusion and deceit.
If wisdom and harmony still dwell in this world, as other than a dream lost in an unopened book, they are hidden in our heartbeat.
And it is from our hearts that we cry out. We cry out and our voices are the single voice of this wounded earth. Our cries are a great wind across the earth."

Luke 5:16

"Your soul needs the wild."

Warrior Gezar

"This harsh and splendid land
With snow-covered rock mountains, cold crystal streams,
Deep forests of cypress, juniper and ash
Is as much my body as what you see before you here.
I cannot be separated from this or from you.
Our many hearts have only a single beat."

Butterfly

The sound barely audible through my dry pursed lips. 

My final breath escapes. 

I die alone in nature’s soft embrace. 

Briefly, darkness falls. 

My senses cease. 

My heart forgets to beat. 

Blackness. 

Nothingness, only momentarily; 

Before my soul begins to vibrate – hum. 

Atoms, Particles, Remnants of ME. 

What once was, will now never be. 

My Self, My Identity, My I. 

has shifted. 

metamorphosed. transmutated. 

I am discombobulated. 

I see the brightness. 

I feel the warmth. 

I am pulled towards the glow. 

Contracting and Expanding. 

I flow into the light. 

I hear my Angel singing. 

Every sound I have ever Loved,

forming one new note. 

My heart explodes from the joy. 

Loving arms encircle and envelope me. 

I am being welcomed home. 

I feel the sense of returning after a long journey. 

I feel the sense of knowing that my adventure, 

has been completed. 

The all encompassing Love fills me; 

Fills my soul. 

I am complete. I am ready. 

I will re-enter all that I have ever Loved. 

Every Flower. 

Every Tree.

Every Animal. 

Every Human. 

The more I Loved the more I will Forever be.

Albert

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

Rumi

"Anything that comes to your doorstep is a guide from beyond."

King Jr

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

Brown

"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins - not through strength but by perseverance."

Confucius

"The superior person understands what is right; the inferior person understands what will sell."

Hedges

"The reason the ecosystem is dying is not because we still have a dryer in our basement. It is because corporations look at everything, from human beings to the natural environment, as exploitable commodities. It is because consumption is the engine of corporate profits."

Elisabeth

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."

Hugo

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face."

Rilke

"For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation."

A Forest Hymn

"The groves were God's first temples"

Michael V.

"Welcome to all of those who hear these words… Welcome. For if you are here,… you know that today is a day that brings together, two bodies of one soul. If you are here, you are here because of the bond of love, the gossamer thread that is held for you by Our bride, Tanya and our Groom, Jason.

Today, here, near the ancient glacial waters. Do we witness, once again, natures return to balance… through the union of Jason and Tanya.

I asked Tanya and Jason to bring to words what they believe their marriage will bring forth to the world... I humbly give you their response...

“That answer is LOVE. We are giving the gift of LOVE to each other and to the world... The LOVE that we have for one another has changed us, and the way that we view the world, and the way that we act within the world... Everything we do now is done with, LOVE. “

And with that love, our bride and groom have come to understand that Marriage is the ultimate choice of truly making a commitment to another being... Not many of the people walking on this planet even comprehend the level of commitment I speak of... To truly commit yourself to one person, so completely, as to never leak energy to another person that is not your spouse... To always keep your mind clear, and your direction in focus, of a single unified path... of two beings becoming greater as a couple than they ever could individually.

Tanya and Jason turn towards each other

Jason, do you now choose Tanya, to be your Wife,
To share your life openly with her...
To speak truthfully and lovingly to her...
To accept her fully as she is... and delight in who she is becoming...
To respect her uniqueness...
Encourage her fulfillment...
And compassionately support her... through all the changes of your lives together?

Tanya, do you now choose Jason, to be your Husband,
To share your life openly with him...
To speak truthfully and lovingly to him...
To accept him fully as he is... and delight in who he is becoming...
To respect his uniqueness...
Encourage his fulfillment...
And compassionately support him... through all the changes of your lives together?

Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens. A great marriage must be created. It is standing together facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor. It is having the capacity to forgive. It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal. It is not only marrying the right being, it is being the right being.

As before, with Tanya’s and Jason’s, verbal, and energetic commitment… We now complete the circle, with a physical representation of their vow to one another.

Jason please take Tanya's left hand and repeat after me....
Because this ring is perfectly symmetrical,
it signifies the perfection of true love.
As I place it on your finger…
I give you all that I am and ever hope to be.

Tanya please take Jason's left hand and repeat after me....
Because this ring has no end or beginning,
it signifies the continuation of true love.
As I place it on your finger…
I give you all that I am, and ever hope to be.

Tanya, Jason…You have both joined voluntarily in this sacred ceremony of marriage, and have been formally united as husband and wife in the presence of your family and friends and under the witness of the ancients of the world, your relations... and the state of Oregon……

As you have declared openly your clear intentions to be considered before all the world as a married couple, expressing the gift of love, in all that you do... and have exchanged rings and vows attesting thereto, it is my pleasure and honor to pronounce you husband and wife. Jason…. you may, please, kiss the bride.

Tanya,… Jason... The world is yours, This day is yours, Please join your Family and Friends in Celebration of Life and Love."

Li Bai

'He gave up fame and fortune in his youth
for the high office of mountain pine and cloud.
He toasted the moon for its beauty
and paid his tax and tribute to the flowers.
Who among us can attain such nobility?
We only breathe its fragrance as we pass.'

Rilke

"Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems."

Tao

"The more I learn; the less I know"

Another Wilde

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

Woolf

“No one sees anyone as they actually are…they see all sorts of things…they seem themselves.”

Thomas

“Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

solzhenitsyn

"It is not our level of prosperity that makes for happiness but the kinship of heart to heart and the way we look at the world. Both attitudes lie within our power, so that a man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy, and no one can stop him."

tolstoy

“Everyone thinks to change the world but no one thinks to change themselves.”

jacob

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Gauguin

"Art is either plagiarism or revolution."

Byron

'What deep wounds ever closed without a scar?'

Watts

'Do things wu-wei, by doing nothing. Achieve without trying to achieve anything -- savour the taste of what you cannot taste.'