Change is Constant

“Every cell in the human body regenerates on average every seven years. Like snakes, in our own way, we shed our skin. Biologically, we are brand new people. We may look the same, we probably do. The change isn't visible, at least not in most of us. But we are all changed, completely, forever.”

“When we say things like ‘people don’t change’, it drives scientists crazy, because change is literally the only constant in all of science. Energy, matter, it’s always changing, morphing, merging, growing, dying. It’s the way people try not to change that’s unnatural; the way we cling to what things were instead of letting them be what they are; the way we cling to old memories instead of forming new ones; the way we insist on believing, despite any scientific indication, that anything in this lifetime is permanent. Change is constant. How we experience change, that’s up to us. It can feel like death, or it can feel like a second chance at life. If we open our fingers, loosen our grips, go with it, it can feel like pure adrenalin. Like at any moment, we can have another chance at life. Like at any moment, we can be born allover again.”

-Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy, Season 7, Episode 1: With You, I’m Born Again

Living is not Enough

Just living is not enough. 
One must have sunshine, freedom,
and a little flower. 

~Hans Christian Andersen

Native American Wisdom

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers.  So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin.  Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.  If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.  ~Native American Wisdom

Eastern Thought and Compassion

I realized that Eastern thought had somewhat more compassion for all living things.  Man was a form of life that in another reincarnation might possibly be a horsefly or a bird of paradise or a deer.  So a man of such a faith, looking at animals, might be looking at old friends or ancestors.  In the East the wilderness has no evil connotation; it is thought of as an expression of the unity and harmony of the universe.  ~William O. Douglas, Go East, Young Man, 1974

Human Beings and the Universe

A human being is part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole [of] nature in its beauty.  ~Albert Einstein, 1950