For awhile now, my mind has been filled with concern for what is happening to our forests, not only here in Nova Scotia, but all around our world.

This new found concern was temporarily relieved while packing up my books for a recent move.  My eye was drawn to a small, soft covered book simply entitled ” Love of Nature”…. a book given to me by my cousin, Joan Starr Murray, now deceased.

For many years, Joan and her husband spent her summers at their cottage in the Kawarthas’ in Ontario. By combining her deep love for the nature that surrounded her and using her keen eye for photography, she created an inspiring collection of poems and sayings by some of our most famous writers and philosophers. After reading her book from cover to cover, I chose those that clearly spoke to me and inspired me to write this post:

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” – John Muir (1838-1911)

“The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demands for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life activity; it affords protection to all beings, offering shade even to the axeman who destroys it.” – Gautama Buddha c.563- c 483 BC

And finally these much loved words written by William Wordsworth I learned in school:

“One impulse from a vernal wood may teach you more of man, of moral evil and of good, than all the sages can.” 

A September walk in the woods in Kejimakujik.

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