<![CDATA[Getting In Touch With Nature

“As the wind softly caresses the tree branches and
rushing sounds from ocean water kiss the shore,
thoughts come to me like whispers from within. It's
then that I connect the deepest with myself and
when I feel most connected to the universe."

~ Betsy Seeton

"I've always done my best thinking on walks and hikes. Nature has a way of cleansing
the gunk that builds up in my head. It's the perfect "delete and reset" button out there."

~ Betsy Seeton

"For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree." ~ Herman Hesse

The more I photograph, the more I see; I mean really see. Now, when I walk along the beach, I see so many more shapes, impastoed barks, textures, lighting, depth, curves, shadows and reflections. I love the way the sun changes the colors of everything and changes depths with its shade. I also enjoy capturing rocks, seaweed, and all the beach stuff along the way. It's a wonderland each time I walk along the shore. The tide brings new wood and gifts to shore and shifts what was there the day before. Ever changing, always beautiful, it's nature's art gallery. And it's nourishing, healing and inspiring.

“The planting of a tree, especially one of the long-living hardwood trees, is a gift which you can make to posterity at almost no cost and with almost no trouble, and if the tree takes root it will far outlive the visible effect of any of your other actions, good or evil.” ~ George Orwell

“Think the tree that bears nutrition:
though the fruits are picked,
the plant maintains fruition.
So give all the love you have.
Do not hold any in reserve.
What is given is not lost; it shall return.”

~Kamond Kojouri

“I keep drawing the trees, the rocks, the river, I'm still learning how to see them; I'm still discovering how to render their forms. I will spend a lifetime doing that. Maybe someday I'll get it right.” ~ Alan Lee

“Trees are metaphorical. Their magic is that they bring beauty,
comfort, and peace to the land. They celebrate life itself.”

~ Brent M. Jones

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”

~ John Muir

“Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind the stronger the trees.”

~ Thomas S Monson

“What an irony it is that these living beings whose shade we sit in,
whose fruit we eat, whose limbs we climb, whose roots we water, to
whom most of us rarely give a second thought, are so poorly
understood. We need to come, as soon as possible, to a profound
understanding and appreciation for trees and forests and the vital
role they play, for they are among our best allies in the uncertain
future that is unfolding.”

~Jim Robbins

“To be without trees would, in the most literal way, to be without our roots.” ~ Richard Mabey

“To the great tree-loving fraternity we belong. We love trees with universal and unfeigned love, and all things that do grow under them or around them - the whole leaf and root tribe.”

~ Henry Ward Beecher

“A tree’s most important means of staying connected to other trees is a
“wood wide web” of soil fungi that connects vegetation in an intimate
network that allows the sharing of an enormous amount of information
and goods.” ~ Tim Flannery

“No one sees trees. We see fruit, we see nuts, we see wood, we see shade. We see ornaments or pretty fall foliage. Obstacles blocking the road or wrecking the ski slope. Dark, threatening places that must be cleared. We see branches about to crush our roof. We see a cash crop. But trees - trees are invisible.” ~ Richard Powers, The Overstory

“As a child, I would place my back against one of our trees and feel its reassuring solidity, its immobility. It was not going to move, it would never go anywhere, it was rooted to its spot. For as long as they are alive, trees remain where they are. This is one of life's few certainties. The roots of trees go deep and take many directions, we cannot foresee their subterranean spread any more than we can predict how a child will grow. Beneath the earth, trees live their secret lives, at times going deeper into the ground than up into the sky, entwined below with other trees which appear in no way connected above the ground.”

~ Anuradha Roy, All the Lives We Never Lived

“The Buddha achieved enlightenment while meditating under a tree. To what extent did the tree’s being contribute to the Buddha’s shift of consciousness?” ~ Melina Sempill Watts

“A tree has roots in the soil yet reaches to the sky. It tells us that in order to aspire we need to be grounded and that no matter how high we go it is from our roots that we draw sustenance. It is a reminder to all of us who have had success that we cannot forget where we came from. It signifies that no matter how powerful we become in government or how many awards we receive, our power and strength and our ability to reach our goals depend on the people, those whose work remain unseen, who are the soil out of which we grow, the shoulders on which we stand” ~ Wangari Maathai

“Silence stands between the trees, waiting for the wind's roar.” ~ Marty Rubin

“To dwellers in a wood, almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature.”
~ Thomas Hardy

“It’s not by accident that people talk of a state of confusion as not being able to see the forest for the trees, or of being out of the woods when some crisis is surmounted. It is a place of loss, confusion, terror and anger, a place where you can, like Dante, find yourself going down into Hell. But if it’s any comfort, the dark wood isn’t just that. It’s also a place of opportunity and adventure. It is the place in which fortunes can be reversed, hearts mended, hopes reborn.” ~ Amanda Craig

“I reached down to feel the soil, and I touched the outreaching roots of the trees that bore horizontally and vertically hundreds of feet through the forest. I stroked the earth with my palm, and I could almost feel that invisible network of capillary roots that sucks moisture and nutrients out of every inch of the soil I was standing on. I breathed in and out. I was part of the forest. I was alive.” - Ned Hayes, Author

"When you put a log on the fire, the light and heat you see is, in a literal
sense, the decades of sunshine that tree basked in over its lifetime.”

~ Peter Brannen, Writer

“You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars.
In the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.” ~ Max Ehrmann

“Trees, for example, carry the memory of rainfall. In their rings we read ancient weather—storms, sunlight, and temperatures, the growing seasons of centuries. A forest shares a history, which each tree remembers even after it has been felled.” ~ Anne Michaels

If you actually got to here, you have a longer attention span than 99% of people. I'd love to hear from you because it's unique that someone would take the time to look at these abstract images without clicking away after the first 2 to 3 seconds. What sets you apart from others?