SECTION 1
Terry Tempest Williams
SECTION 2
From Terry Tempest William's book, REFUGE: An Unnatural History of Family and Place:
Wilderness courts our souls. When I sat in church throughout my growing years, I listened to teachings about Christ in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights, reclaiming his strength, where he was able to say to Satan, "Get the hence." When I imagined Joseph Smith kneeling in a grove of trees as he received his vision to create a new religion, I believed their sojourns into nature were sacred. Are ours any less?
There is a Mormon scripture from the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 88:44-47 that I carry with me:
| The earth rolls upon her wings, and the sun giveth his light by day, and
the moon giveth her light by night, and the stars also give their light, as they roll upon
their wings in their glory, in the midst of the power of God. Unto what shall I liken these kingdoms that ye may understand? Behold all these are kingdoms and any man who hath seen any or the least of these hath seen God moving in his majesty and power. |
I pray to the birds.
I pray to the birds because I believe they will carry the messages of my heart upward. I pray to them because I believe in their existence, the way their songs begin and end each day -- the invocations and benedictions of Earth. I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen.
-- pp. 148-149.
