#serenity

Out yonder they may curse, revile, and torture one another, defile all the human instincts, make a shambles of creation (if it were in their power), but here, no, here, it is unthinkable, here there is abiding peace, the peace of God, and the serene security created by a handful of good neighbors living at one with the creature world. ↗

— Henry Miller

#california #ecology #environment #good-neighbors #nature

If you are in the mountains alone for some time, many days at minimum, & it helps if you are fasting. The forest grows tired of its weariness towards you; it resumes its inner life and allows you to see it. Near dusk the faces in tree bark cease hiding, and stare out at you. The welcoming ones and also the malevolent, open in their curiosity. In your camp at night you are able to pick out a distinct word now and then from the muddled voices in creek water, sometimes an entire sentence of deep import. The ghosts of animals reveal themselves to you without prejudice to your humanity. You see them receding before you as you walk the trail their shapes beautiful and sad. ↗

— Charles Frazier

#reflection #serenity #solitude #thirteen-moons #beauty

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed--and gazed--but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. ↗

— William Wordsworth

#peace #poetry #serenity #dance

I will be calm. I will be mistress of myself. ↗

— Jane Austen

#serenity #jane-austen

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. ↗

— Reinhold Niebuhr

#accept #cannot #courage #difference #god

What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue. ↗

— Henri Matisse

#art #balance #calming #depressing #devoid

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change. The courage to change the things I can. And the wisdom to know the difference. I still didn't know the difference. ↗

— Betsy Lerner

#serenity-prayer #change

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. ↗

— Lao Tzu

#change #life #reality #serenity #change

God, grant me strength to accept those things I cannot change. ↗

— Dan Brown

#serenity-prayer #strength #change

Life has its rhythm ad we have ours. They’re designed to coexist in harmony, so that when we do what is ours to do and otherwise let life be, we garner acceptance and serenity. (285) ↗

— Victoria Moran

#harmony #letting-go #life #rhythm #serenity