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A
continuation of this popular theme. Nature
pleases, attracts, delights, merely because it is nature. A few minutes ago
every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling,
tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though
to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease.
Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling
like harp strings, while incense is ever flowing from the balsam bells
and leaves. No wonder the hills and groves were God’s first temples, and
the more they are cut down and hewn into cathedrals and churches, the
farther off and dimmer seems the Lord himself. In the garden the
door is always open into the “holy” — growth, birth, death. Every flower
holds the whole mystery in its short cycle, and in the garden we are never
far away from death, the fertilizing, good creative death. . . . Everything
that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into
the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace. Questions
about articles and artwork?
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Golden
Rules The
successes and losses of your neighbor will be to you as if they were your own. One
should treat all creatures in the world as one would like to be treated. Do
not offend others as you would not want to be offended. Is
there any rule that one should follow all of one's life? Yes! The rule of the
gentle goodness: That which we do not wish to be done to us, we do not do to
others. Everything
you should do you will find in this: Do nothing to others that would hurt you if
it were done to you. Do
not do harm to your fellow creature. This is the whole law; the rest is only
commentary. In
everything, do to others what you would have them do to you. None
of you shall be true believers unless you wish for others the same that you wish
for yourself. I
am a stranger to no one; and no one is a stranger to me. Indeed, I am a friend
to all. Lay
not on any soul a load that you would not wish to be laid upon you, and
desire not for anyone the things that you would not desire for yourself. We
affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence, of which
we are a part. We
are as much alive as we keep the earth alive. Whatever
you send out returns to you threefold. We
each have obligations to present and future generations, and to the
preservation, enhancement, and well-being of all life on the planet Earth.
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