Becoming John Muir

"God never made an ugly landscape. All that the sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild."

Some words mean nothing until you see the ocean. vast heaving surge indigo

Love-fear of the wild blooms in high desert, on salt flats and in dry creeks. stark sere sage arroyo

"The snow is melting into music."

The works of thy hands will grow fragile and shrink in the shadow of granite and glacier. alpine jagged stoic summit

Uninterrupted, a forest will rebuild itself after wind, water, and fire. verdant dappled whisper canopy 

"The wrongs done to trees, wrongs of every sort, are done in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief, for when the light comes, the heart of the people is always right."

Some words mean nothing when they are spoken to a Sequoia. legislation industry right of way

Cliffs and canyons are not carved by congress. No waterfall waits for election results. craven petty partisan narcissist  

"Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation?"

With a flood they drowned Hetch Hetchy, and in that water sank unknown words. 

Why should one man value himself as more than a small part of the great unit of this country, our continent, the American West? 

"The battle we have fought, and are still fighting for the forests is a part of the eternal conflict between right and wrong, and we cannot expect to see the end of it."

I am tired, but some words mean nothing until you are threatened with the loss of speech. resist 

and

resist, resist, resist

(all quotes drawn from the writings of John Muir, 1838-1914)