Each step

Every step that we take upon you should be done in a sacred manner;
each step should be as a prayer.
Black Elk - prayer to Mother Earth

Sorbet of roses

Recipe for Rose and Chardonnay Sorbet

2 cups (gently packed) organic rose petals
1 cup sugar
3 cups cold water
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
I cup Chardonnay wine

Process the rose petals with 1 cup of water and the sugar in a blender or food processor for about 30 seconds. Add remaining 2 cups water, the lemon juice and 1 cup wine and process for about 10 seconds.
Pour the liquid through a fine sieve.
Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

Universe

The whole universe is enhanced with the same breath,
rocks, trees, grass, earth, all animals, and men.

- Hopi saying

Beauty

"Beauty itself is the language to which we have no key;
it is the mute cipher, the cryptogram, the uncracked, unbroken code."

- Annie Dillard

Rainbow at dinner

The river's wild and noble sights, such as those in parlors never dream of.
- H.D. Thoreau

Where the wood drake rests

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
- Wendell Berry