[quotes] To Speak for the Trees - Diana Beresford-Kroeger 2019

 

"The Celts believed a tree's presence could be felt more keenly at night or after a heavy rain, and that certain people were more attuned to trees and better able to perceive them. There is a special word for this recognition of sentience, mothaitheacht. It is described as a feeling in the upper chest of some kind of energy or sound passing through you."

"From my understanding of plant, I work towards the human body; and from my understanding of the human body, I work towards the plant. I have never failed to fin a point, or points, where they meet. Every plant is intimately tied to human beings and our health. The people of Lichens knew this and a great many other things."

"I can now say that the whole of our 160 acres is designed with the goal of encouraging life in just these kinds of ways."

"But inside your head and heart, when a problem seems beyond your ability, it doesn't much matter how far beyond - impossible is impossible. That day taught me to take the first step anyway. It taught me that our limits, alone and together, lie much further out than we imagine. It taught me that there is no such thing as a hopeless situation."

"Mother trees can feed and protect other trees within the expanse of their canopy. They are the leaders of the community we call forests. And across the globe, forests represent life." 

"Mother trees of deciduous forests are always nut-, legume- or acorn-producing species, because those sources of primary protein attract all manner of animal life. Mother trees are a common trait shared by every forest on Earth."

"Of course, mother trees were the support structure for the ancient forests of Ireland, too. The Druids knew all about them. When Nellie spoke to the lone ash in Lichens, she spoke as mother to mother, and traces of that understanding filtered down to me."

"You've got to stay on your hind legs and take a swing - all of us do. You've got to take a first step towards a goal that seems unachievable, and have the integrity and courage to believe that you will reach it one day. We all have immense courage. Every one of us is capable of extraordinary things."

"There is a deity in nature that we all understand. When you walk into a forest - great or small - you enter it in one state and emerge from it calmer. You have that cathedral feeling and you're never the same again. You come out of there and you know something big has happened to you."

"After a dark, overcast winter's day, or a prolonged period of rain, go out into the sunshine. Take a stand and spread out your arms, palms up. Tilt your head up, too, and let the sunshine land on your face, your hands, the rest of you. Feel the sun on the surface of your skin. With this act, you are becoming like a tree. You are acting like a tree, with your arms spread out towards the sunshine just like ht leaves in a canopy."

"Their belief system was governed by the concept of the soul, anam, and the spiritual guidance, anamchara, that arose from everywhere. They believed that the living world was filled with soul and, because of that, life in all of its forms needed to be protected. Anam spread into the afterlife, like a great sheet of consciousness. The fairy people lived in this parallel world and could come and go at will. They announced to the living the upcoming deaths of all members of the ancient Celtic families whose names began with Mac or O." 

[quotes] Inverno em Sokcho - Elisa Shua Dusapin 2016

  

[quotes] a terra dá, a terra quer - antonio bispo dos santos 2023

  

"Um rio nao deixa de ser um rio porque conflui com outro rio, ao contrario, ele passa a ser ele mesmo e outros rios, ele se fortalece. Quando a gente confluencia, a gente nao deixa de ser a gente, a gente passa a ser a gente e outra gente - a gente rende." 

"Pisar as fezes da galinha? Impossivel! Tem que ter uma ceramica bem lisinha para poder enxergar qualquer outra vida, qualquer outro vivente que estiver ali, para poder desinfetar e matar qualquer microrganismo. Matar ate o que nao se ve. Para andar descalco, e preciso desinfetar o chao: a ceramica foi criada porque os humanos nao podem pisar na terra. Porque a terra e o anseio original." 

"Percebi que o povo da cidade tinha relacoes de utilidade e importancia, mas nao tinha relacoes de necessidade. Para nos, a passoa que e importante nao e quase nada. E aquela pessoa que se acha otima, mas nao serve. O termo que tem valor para nos e necessario. Ha pessoas que sao necessarias e ha pessoas que sao importantes. As pessoas que sao importantes acham que as outras pessoas existem para servi-las. As pessoas necessarias sao diferentes, sao pessoas que fazem falta. Pessoas que precisam estar presentes, de quem se vai atras." 

"Quando viajo, nao dou dinheiro para hotel e, ao inves de ir ao shopping, vou a feira, porque na feira vejo pessoas que se parecem comigo, que transpiram, que sao organicas. As pessoas do shopping nao transpiram, no shopping nao ha cheiro de suor, so ha cheiros sinteticos, cheiros de produtos abstratos." 

"Encuanto a sociedade se faz com os iguais, a comunidade se faz com or diversos. Nos somos os diversais, os cosmologicos, os naturais, os organicos." 

"Os humanistas nao querem globalizar no sentido diversal, mas no sentido de unificar, de transformar tudo em um. Quando falam de individuo, falam de unicidade. Nos, quando falamos de individuo, estamos falando de unidade, estamos dizendo 'um', mas esse 'um' e parte do todo, do universo. Se para os humanistas o 'um' e o universo, para nos so ha 'um' porque ha mais de um." 

"Quando nao ha circularidade, voce vai ter que voltar por onde voce foi. Na transfluencia nao ha volta, porque ela e circular. Ao mesmo tempo que algo vai, fica; ao mesmo tempo que fica, vai - sem desconectar." 

"Trouxemos a palavra contracolonialismo para enfraquecer o colonialismo. Ja que o referencial de um extremo e o outro, tomamos o proprio colonialismo. Criamos um antidoto: estamos tirando o veneno do colonialismo para transforma-lo em antidoto contra ele proprio." 

"Ao contrario do que se pensa, nao se trata de uma atividade cansativa, cozinhar so e cansativo quando alguem conzinha sozinho para servir a todos. Num clima de festa, conzinhar nao e cansativo." 

"Dizem tambem que existem milicias e crime organizado nas favelas e nos quilombos. O que nos dizemos e que existe milicia nos Alphavilles, a diferenca e que a milicia dos Alphavilles e legalizada e institucionalizada, e tem muito mais armas do que a milicia de favela. O que se chama de seguranca privada e uma milicia." 

"E no bar de ponta de rua que que fazemos esse tipo de comparacao, e ali que rimos quando passa um carro todo poderoso e fecha os vidros com medo: 'Coitado, alem de preso no Alphaville, ainda e preso quando esta na rua e ve a gente!". Somos as pessoas que prendem sem preciar de algema ou chave, so com a aparencia." 

"Por que o povo da humanidade precisa de restaurante? Porque eles tem medo de receber pessoas em suas casas, eles tem medo de gente! Os humanos tem medo de si. Isso e cosmofobia." 

"As universidades sao fabricas de transformar os saberes em mercadorias e a agricultura quilombola nao e mercadoria. Mas os saberes considerados validos sao aqueles que a universidade converte em mercadoria." 

"Ora, isso que se compra no supermercado com o selo de 'organico' e um produto, as vezes sem veneno, mas nao e algo organico. Nao e produzido pelo saber organico, nao e voltado para a vida. Se um quilo de carne organica e muito caro, o pobre nao pode comprar; e se o pobre nao pode comer, nao e organico. Organico e aquilo que todas as vidas potem acessar. O que as vidas nao podem acessar nao e o organico, e mercadoria - com ou sem veneno."  

[quotes] Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) - Dean Spade 2020

  

"Mutual aid projects work to meet survival needs and build shared understanding about why people do not have what they need." 

"Getting support through a mutual aid project that has a political analysis of the conditions that produced your crisis also helps to break stigma, shame, and isolation." 

"By participating in groups in new ways and practicing new ways of being together, we are both building the world we want and becoming the kind of people who could live in such a world together." 

"We are encouraged to be mostly numbed-out consumers, but ones who perhaps volunteer at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving, post videos about animal rights on our social media accounts, or wear a T-shirt with a feminist slogan now and again." 

"Activism and mutual aid shouldn't feel like volunteering or like a hobby - it should feel like living in alignment with our hopes for the world and with our passions. It should enliven us." 

"They encourage reforms premised on the assumption that the systems we seek to dismantle are fundamentally fair and fixable. We have to refuse to limit our visions to the concessions they want to give - what we want is a radically different world that eliminates the systems that put our lives under their control."  

"Because of how capitalism controls the means for getting by - food, health, housing, communications, transportation - and how dependent we are on systems we do not control, it can be hard to imagine that we could survive another way. But for most of human history, we did, and mutual aid projects let us relearn that it's possible and emancipatory." 

"MADR's slogan is 'No Masters, No Flakes,' and it's a great summary of key principles for collective mutual aid work. This dual focus on rejecting hierarchies inside the organization and committing to build accountability according to shared values asks participants to keep showing up and working together not because a boss is making you, but because you want to." 

"Consensus decision-making is based on the idea that everyone should have a say in decisions that affect them." 

"For consensus to work well, people need a common purpose; some degree of trust in each other; and understanding of the consensus process; a willingness to put the best interests of the group at the center (which does not mean people let themselves be harmed 'for the good of the group,' but may mean being okay not always getting their way); a willingness to spend time preparing and discussing proposals; and skillful facilitation and agenda preparation." 

"When someone shows up to a mutual aid group for the first time, full of urgency about something they care about, and they do not understand why things are being done the way they are, or do not understand how things are being done, and do not have a way to share their opinions and influence what is happening, they are likely to leave. People come to contribute, but they stay because they feel needed, included, and a part of something." 

"In our culture, we get a lot of practice either going along with bossy people or trying to be the boss. It's time to learn something different." 

"Decision-making works better if, rather than anyone seeing it as 'my proposal,' we can see it as the group's proposal. That way we are less likely to become rigidly attached to one outcome." 

"Most of us avoid conflict either by submitting to others' wills and trying to numb out the impact on us, or by trying to dominate others to get our way and being numb to the impact on others." 

 "If we do work we care deeply about with other people, we will experience conflict because the stakes of the work feel very high to us, and that conflict is likely to bring up wounds and reactions from earlier in our lives." 

"Sometimes we are so used to feeling excluded that we tune into that familiar feeling quickly and easily, unconsciously looking for evidence that we are different or are being slighted or left out." 

"We live in a society based on disposability. When we feel bad, we often automatically decide that either we are bad or another person is bad... If we want to build a different way of being together in groups, we have to look closely at the feelings and behaviors that generate the desire to throw people away."  

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy - Becky Chambers 2022

  

"Nobody should be barred from necessities or comforts just because they don't have the right number next to their name."

"All ingredients on Panga had to first exist on Panga. Everything is natural in origin, but if you turn it into something that nature can no longer recycle, then you've removed it from that realm entirely. It no longer has a part to play. Just like me. I'm an observer, not a participant." 

"I'm here to meet humanity, and these people you've described are just as much a part of it as you are. I wouldn't be doing a very good job of pursuing my quest if I only welcomed the parts that were fun." 

"But that's exactly why I come back after going elsewhere. Me and mine believe the further you distance yourself from the realities of what it means to be an animal in this world, the more you risk severing your connection to it." 

"It was always a strange thing, coming home. Coming home meant that you had, at one point, left it and, in doing so, irreversibly changed. How odd, then, to be able to return to a place that would always be anchored in your notion of the past. How could this place still be there, if the you that once lived there no longer existed?"