this everything dance

  

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Without stirring abroad,
one can know the whole world; 

Without looking out of the window
one can see the way of heaven. 

The further one goes the less one knows.


—Lao Tzu

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I like to live in the sound of water,
in the feel of mountain air. A sharp
reminder hits me: this world is still alive,
it stretches out there shivering toward its own
creation, and I'm part of it. Even my breathing

enters into this elaborate give-and-take,
this bowing to sun and moon, day or night,
winter, summer, storm, still - this tranquil
chaos that seems to be going somewhere.
This wilderness with a great peacefulness in it.
This motionless turmoil, this everything dance.


—William Stafford
Even in Quiet Places

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