Lin Jensen > Quotes

“To attribute meaning to an event or to a lifetime of events is an expression of dissatisfaction with things as they are.”
― Lin Jensen

“If we don’t insist on defining impermanence as unsatisfactory, then it’s natural to celebrate. Just a moments pause to consider the passing of the seasons is enough to convince anyone that not only is impermanence the source of all possible joy in this life but its the movement of life itself.”
― Lin Jensen, Bad Dog!: A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places

“The earth provides not just a little, but all. The very body and mind with which I tend the earth are themselves of the earth. I am but earth tending earth. Were the earth not to roll this garden toward the sun today, were the clouds not to gather above the sea, the waters not to flow, the soil not to brim with its billions of microorganisms, were all or any part of this to fail, I would fail as well, my body numbed to a fixed stillness, my slightest thought cancelled. This truth is so obvious that it is a wonder we can forget it so often and so easily. The fact of it defines who we are. To forget this is to forget who we are, a species suffering from amnesia that bewildered seeks its own name.”
― Lin Jensen, Bad Dog!: A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places

“Beyond anything we know to name, there moves a force arising from the pure juxtaposition of things, a force that draws us into being, that allows us to dwell fully in our lives. All pure juxtaposition is a gathering.”
― Lin Jensen, Bad Dog!: A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places

“We can’t fabricate our being, we can only receive it.”
― Lin Jensen, Bad Dog!: A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places

“Bicycling incorporates tilt into balance. Unless one is willing to tilt toward a fall, one cannot avoid falling. We are at all times poised for imminent fall. That we do not continually crash is the working of a grace beyond our will. Do not think that we are held upright by the force of our own intent, for balance of itself seeks itself. We discard our training wheels when we acquire trust, when we discover that what is needed for our travels is already given to us in the very nature of things.”
― Lin Jensen, Bad Dog!: A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places