I love these quotes from "Loving and Leaving the Good Life" by Helen Nearing, a notation from a card in Scott Nearing's files:
"The majority will always be for caution, hesitation, and the status quo - always against creation and innovation. The innovator - he who leaves the beaten track - must therefore always be a minoritarian - always be an object of opposition, scorn, hatred. It is part of the price he must pay for the ecstasy that accompanies creative thinking and acting." (p17)
On the subject of dying:
"Birth and death are but words that we've invented to express the limit of our knowledge... 'Death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.'" (p175)
On living mindfully:
"Yes, we meditated - not always by sitting down cross-legged, trying to direct our erring thoughts toward higher realms. We might start the day with a recognition of our relationship with the whole, opening ourselves to an acknowledgment of the creative forces in the universe, keeping wide the channels of our being so that benign forces could stream through. We breathed especially deep of life at those times and tried to continue this sense of dedication throughout the day. Was this meditation? For us it was." (p164)
Scott Nearing, on consumerism and materialism:
"It is not what we have but what we do that changes us and helps us grow. Often the things we have get in the way." (p155)
Perhaps my favourite quote from the book (probably because it so clearly articulates the baby-steps to take to live a life in accordance with one's expressed values, something I was contemplating in my last post):
"We offered tips on de-stressing one's life:
1. Do the best you can, whatever arises
2. Be at peace with yourself
3. Find a job you enjoy
4. Live in simple conditions: housing, food, clothing; get rid of clutter
5. Contact nature every day; feel the earth under your feet
6. Take physical exercise through hard work; through gardening or walking
7. Don't worry; live one day at a time
8. Share something every day with someone else; if you live alone, write someone; give something away, help someone else somehow
9. Take time to wonder at life and the world; see some humour in life where you can
10. Observe the one life in all things
11. Be kind to the creatures" (p151)
From Twelve-by-twelve: a one-room cabin off the grid and beyond the american dream (William Powers):
"We humans are nature become conscious of itself." (p51)
This one's for my sister, lol - having grown up in a family where it was all about accomplishment and 'success' - doing, not being - I've added the italics on the final sentence:
"A slightly horrific vision formed in my mind of their farm five years hence: not this perfectly raw, deer-filled, wild space, but a domesticated pastoral idyll with a summer camp feel. The Pauls would show people around and describe the present moment as those terrible days "when there was absolutely nothing here."
I recognized this as a symptom of that contagious, middle-class virus that causes addiction, anxiety, depression, and ennui: affluenza. The richer we get, the poorer we feel. To fill the void, we do. I know the feeling. Like the Pauls, I'm American, not indigenous Guatemalan. I am conditioned to equate my self-worth with being active, productive, useful." (p145)
"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to leave alone. (Thoreau)" (p146).
"There is no greater gift to the world and to others than being true to your deepest self." (p242)
"The majority will always be for caution, hesitation, and the status quo - always against creation and innovation. The innovator - he who leaves the beaten track - must therefore always be a minoritarian - always be an object of opposition, scorn, hatred. It is part of the price he must pay for the ecstasy that accompanies creative thinking and acting." (p17)
On the subject of dying:
"Birth and death are but words that we've invented to express the limit of our knowledge... 'Death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.'" (p175)
On living mindfully:
"Yes, we meditated - not always by sitting down cross-legged, trying to direct our erring thoughts toward higher realms. We might start the day with a recognition of our relationship with the whole, opening ourselves to an acknowledgment of the creative forces in the universe, keeping wide the channels of our being so that benign forces could stream through. We breathed especially deep of life at those times and tried to continue this sense of dedication throughout the day. Was this meditation? For us it was." (p164)
Scott Nearing, on consumerism and materialism:
"It is not what we have but what we do that changes us and helps us grow. Often the things we have get in the way." (p155)
Perhaps my favourite quote from the book (probably because it so clearly articulates the baby-steps to take to live a life in accordance with one's expressed values, something I was contemplating in my last post):
"We offered tips on de-stressing one's life:
1. Do the best you can, whatever arises
2. Be at peace with yourself
3. Find a job you enjoy
4. Live in simple conditions: housing, food, clothing; get rid of clutter
5. Contact nature every day; feel the earth under your feet
6. Take physical exercise through hard work; through gardening or walking
7. Don't worry; live one day at a time
8. Share something every day with someone else; if you live alone, write someone; give something away, help someone else somehow
9. Take time to wonder at life and the world; see some humour in life where you can
10. Observe the one life in all things
11. Be kind to the creatures" (p151)
From Twelve-by-twelve: a one-room cabin off the grid and beyond the american dream (William Powers):
"We humans are nature become conscious of itself." (p51)
This one's for my sister, lol - having grown up in a family where it was all about accomplishment and 'success' - doing, not being - I've added the italics on the final sentence:
"A slightly horrific vision formed in my mind of their farm five years hence: not this perfectly raw, deer-filled, wild space, but a domesticated pastoral idyll with a summer camp feel. The Pauls would show people around and describe the present moment as those terrible days "when there was absolutely nothing here."
I recognized this as a symptom of that contagious, middle-class virus that causes addiction, anxiety, depression, and ennui: affluenza. The richer we get, the poorer we feel. To fill the void, we do. I know the feeling. Like the Pauls, I'm American, not indigenous Guatemalan. I am conditioned to equate my self-worth with being active, productive, useful." (p145)
"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to leave alone. (Thoreau)" (p146).
"There is no greater gift to the world and to others than being true to your deepest self." (p242)
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