Michelle Calder

“My life flows with a deeper current, no longer as a shallow and brawling stream, parched and shrunken by the summer heats. My heart leaps into my mouth at the sound of the wind in the woods. I, whose life was but yesterday so desultory and shallow, suddenly recover my spirits, my spirituality, through my hearing. For joy I could embrace the earth ... I have occasion to be grateful for the flood of life that is flowing over me. I am not so poor.”
― Henry David Thoreau, The Journal, 1837-1861

“I’m lying on the ground looking up at the branches of an oak tree. Dappled light is shining through the canopy, the leaves whisper ancient incantations. This tree, in its living stage, rooted in sights and sounds that I’ll never know, has witnessed extinctions and wars, loves and losses. I wish we could translate the language of trees – hear their voices, know their stories. They host such an astonishing amount of life – there are thousands of species harbouring in and on and under this mighty giant. And I believe trees are like us, or they inspire the better parts of human nature. If only we could be connected in the way this oak tree is connected with its ecosystem.”
― Dara McAnulty, Diary of a Young Naturalist

“you return like autumn,
and i fall every time”
― -L.S.

“Life is a constant state of exploration and evolution. Twelve years ago, I wrote that I was on a journey of discovery and change. This has turned out to be the one phrase that has stayed true throughout all the alterations in my life and in my way of thinking.”
― Eric Overby