You could do worse than...

What is the best way to spend the day?  You could do worse than...

To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell,

To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,
Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been;

To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold;

Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean;

This is not solitude, 'tis but to hold
Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores unrolled.

 

(extract from Solitude, Lord Byron)

Beyond Ourselves

Meeting some ducks in Borrowdale, Cumbria

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” 

(Albert Einstein)

Looking Out of the Window

What Life can compare to this?

Sitting quietly by the window,

I watch the leaves fall, 

And the flowers bloom, 

As the seasons come and go.

(Hseuh-Tou, 982-1052)

Contemplating Nature

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”

Rachel Carson in Silent Spring

http://kathyroscoe.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/going-home.html

 http://kathyroscoe.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-face-of-flower.html

 http://kathyroscoe.blogspot.co.uk/2014_12_01_archive.html

 http://kathyroscoe.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/time-to-stop-and-stare.html

The Face of a Flower

Look into the face of a flower 

and 

lose yourself in its beauty and perfection

Time to Stop and Stare

We are so preoccupied and absorbed with our own lives and human affairs that we often fail to see the beauty that surrounds us.

If we occasionally stopped to look, to really see the birds, animals, trees, sky and myriad other wondrous things that comprise the natural world, we would not only become more familiar with them but also learn much about ourselves.