Discover a wealth of wisdom and insight from Terry Tempest Williams through their most impactful and thought-provoking quotes and sayings. Expand your perspective with their inspiring words and share these beautiful Terry Tempest Williams quote pictures with your friends and followers on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blog - all free of charge. We've compiled the top 363 Terry Tempest Williams quotes for you to explore and share with others.

What was it like when your mother passed away?" I asked Mimi. "I was twenty-eight years old. I had just given birth to John when I found out Mother had died from a stomach ulcer. A sudden infection. She had just made plans to come from Washington, D.C. to see him." She paused. "I'll never forget the telegram my sister Marion sent. I couldn't believe it. It was so final. Suddenly, the world seemed very dark. I couldn't imagine how I was going to live without her and I grieved deeply that she was never able to see her first grandchild. But I will tell you, Terry, you do get along. It isn't easy. The void is always with you. But you will get by without your mother just fine and I promise you, you will become stronger and stronger each day. By Terry Tempest Williams Mother Passed Mimi Stronger John

But what thrilled me most was the fact that millions of meteors burn up every day as they enter our atmosphere. As a result, Earth receives ten tons of dust from outer space. Not only do we take in the world with each breath, we are inhaling the universe. We are made of stardust. By Terry Tempest Williams Atmosphere Thrilled Fact Millions Meteors

Awe is the moment when ego surrenders to wonder. This is our inheritance - the beauty before us. We cry. We cry out. There is nothing sentimental about facing the desert bare. It is a terrifying beauty. By Terry Tempest Williams Awe Moment Ego Surrenders Cry

I am slowly, painfully discovering that my refuge is not found in my mother, my grandmother, of even the birds of Bear River. My refuge exists in my capacity to love. If I can learn to love death then I can begin to find refuge in change. By Terry Tempest Williams River Bear Refuge Slowly Painfully

I am a woman with wings,' I once wrote and will revise these words again. 'I am a woman with wings dancing with other women with wings.' In a voiced community, we all flourish. By Terry Tempest Williams Wings Woman Wrote Revise Words

The nature of living and loving is the act of reciprocity. As women, we are told that to be the guest is to receive. We are told that to be the host is to give. But what if it is the reverse? What if it is the guest who gives to the host and it is the host who receives from the guest each time she sets her table to welcome and feed those she loves? To be the guest and the host simultaneously is to imagine a mutual exchange of gifts predicated on respect and joy. If we could adopt this truth, perhaps we as women would be less likely to become martyrs. By Terry Tempest Williams Guest Host Reciprocity Told Nature

Each of us has one. Each voice is distinct and has something to say. Each voice deserves to be heard. But it requires the act of listening. By Terry Tempest Williams Voice Heard Distinct Listening Deserves

To be read. To be heard. To be seen. I want to be read, I want to be heard. I don't need to be seen. To write requires an ego, a belief that what you say matters. Writing also requires an aching curiosity leading you to discover, uncover, what is gnawing at your bones. Words have a weight to them. How you choose to present them and to whom is a matter of style and choice. By Terry Tempest Williams Read Heard Requires Matters Matter

This is my living faith, an active faith, a faith of verbs: to question, explore, experiment, experience, walk, run, dance, play, eat, love, learn, dare, taste, touch, smell, listen, speak, write, read, draw, provoke, emote, scream, sin, repent, cry, kneel, pray, bow, rise, stand, look, laugh, cajole, create, confront, confound, walk back, walk forward, circle, hide, and seek. By Terry Tempest Williams Walk Explore Experiment Experience Run

Wherever we are, we can call for and create these kinds of settings for authentic dialogue. This is the seedbed of social change. In a voiced community, we all flourish. But it's not easy. Revolutionary patience and persistence is required. It can be messy, it is unpredictable, and change, especially structural change takes time - time and leadership and the will of an engaged community. What is needed? In a word, courage. By Terry Tempest Williams Dialogue Change Call Create Kinds

To this day, my spiritual life is found inside the heart of the wild. I do not fear it, I court it. When I am away, I anticipate my return, needing to touch stone, rock, water, the trunks of trees, the sway of grasses, the barbs of a feather, the fur left behind by a shedding bison. By Terry Tempest Williams Day Wild Spiritual Life Found

[I]f you know wilderness in the way that you know love, you would be unwilling to let it go. We are talking about the body of the beloved, not real estate. By Terry Tempest Williams Love Wilderness Unwilling Beloved Estate

Is it possible to make a living by simply watching light? Monet did. Vermeer did. I believe Vincent did too. They painted light in order to witness the dance between revelation and concealment, exposure and darkness. Perhaps this is what I desire most, to sit and watch the shifting shadows cross the cliff face of sandstone or simply to walk parallel with a path of liquid light called the Colorado River. In the canyon country of southern Utah, these acts of attention are not merely the pastimes of artists, but daily work, work that matters to the whole community.This living would include becoming a caretaker of silence, a connoisseur of stillness, a listener of wind where each dialect is not only heard but understood. By Terry Tempest Williams Make Watching Light Simply Living

I want you to read 'God Sees the Truth, but Waits,' " said Mother. "Tolstoy writes about a man, wrongly accused of a murder, who spends the rest of his life in a prison camp. Twenty-six years later, as a convict in Siberia, he meets the true murderer and has an opportunity to free himself, but chooses not to. His longing for home leaves him and he dies." I ask Mother why this story matters to her. "Each of us must face our own Siberia," she says. "We must come to peace within our own isolation. No one can rescue us. My cancer is my Siberia." Suddenly, two white birds about the size of finches, dart in front of us and land on the snow. By Terry Tempest Williams God Truth Waits Siberia Read

I have a sequence to my creative life. In spring and fall, I am above ground and commit to community. In the summer, I'm outside. It is a time for family. And in the winter, I am underground. Home. This is when I do my work as a writer - in hibernation. I write with the bears. By Terry Tempest Williams Life Sequence Creative Fall Community

There is something very sensual about a letter. The physical contact of pen to paper, the time set aside to focus thoughts, the folding of the paper into the envelope, licking it closed, addressing it, a chosen stamp, and then the release of the letter to the mailbox - are all acts of tenderness. By Terry Tempest Williams Letter Sensual Paper Thoughts Envelope

It is difficult to ever see yourself. I don't know how I've developed or grown as a writer. I hope I am continuing to take risks on the page. I hope I am continuing to ask the hard questions of myself. If we are attentive to the world and to those around us, I believe we will be attentive on the page. Writing is about presence. I want to be fully present wherever I am, alive to the pulse just beneath the skin. By Terry Tempest Williams Difficult Page Hope Continuing Attentive

What is it about the relationship of a mother that can heal or hurt us? Her womb is the first landscape we inhabit. It is here we learn to respond - to move, to listen, to be nourished and grow. In her body we grow to be human as our tails disappear and our gills turn to lungs. Our maternal environment is perfectly safe - dark, warm, and wet. It is a residency inside the Feminine. When we outgrow our mother's body, our cramps become her own. We move. She labors. Our body turns upside down in hers as we journey through the birth canal. She pushes in pain. We emerge, a head. She pushes one more time, and we slide out like a fish. Slapped on the back by the doctor, we breath. The umbilical cord is cut - not at our request. Separation is immediate. A mother reclaims her body, for her own life. Not ours. Minutes old, our first death is our own birth. By Terry Tempest Williams Body Mother Relationship Heal Hurt

Social change can be seen as a mosaic, taking that which is broken and creating something new. By Terry Tempest Williams Social Mosaic Taking Change Broken

I come from a culture that embodies the need to convert others to "the truth." The Mormon Church has one of the largest missionary programs in the world. That does not interest me. By Terry Tempest Williams Truth Culture Embodies Convert Mormon

I can only say that I believe the Mormon Church is changing because the people inside the church are changing, particularly, the women. And if the women in the Mormon Church are changing, that means the men in the Mormon Church will change - slowly, reluctantly to be sure, but inevitably. By Terry Tempest Williams Mormon Church Changing Women People

In the early days of the Mormon Church, stewardship toward the land was a priority. It was a matter of survival in the desert. By Terry Tempest Williams Church Mormon Stewardship Priority Early

Well, we are Americans. I've always believed that you work with where you are - I am a Mormon woman who was raised on the edge of the Great Salt Lake in the American West in the United States of America. But, by the same token, much of my life has been spent resisting traditional forms of democracy, resisting traditional forms of orthodoxy, be it the United States government or the Mormon Church. By Terry Tempest Williams United States Mormon Americans American

Now, in a shift of light, the shadows of birds are more pronounced on the gallery's white wall. The shadow of each bird is speaking to me. Each shadow doubles the velocity, ferocity of forms. The shadow, my shadow now merges with theirs. Descension. Ascension. The velocity of wings creates the whisper to awaken ... .I want to feel both the beauty and the pain of the age we are living in. I want to survive my life without becoming numb. I want to speak and comprehend words of wounding without having these words become the landscape where I dwell. I want to possess a light touch that can elevate darkness to the realm of stars. By Terry Tempest Williams Shadow Wall Shift Pronounced Gallery

We usually recognize a beginning. Endings are more difficult to detect. Most often, they are realized only after reflection. Silence. We are seldom conscious when silence begins - it is only afterward that we realize what we have been a part of. In the night journeys of Canada geese, it is the silence that propels them. Thomas Merton writes, Silence is the strength of our interior life. ... If we fill our lives with silence, then we will live in hope. By Terry Tempest Williams Silence Beginning Recognize Canada Endings

Storytelling awakens us to that which is real. Honest ... it transcends the individual ... Those things that are most personal are most general, and are, in turn, most trusted. Stories bind ... They are basic to who we are.A story composite personality which grows out of its community. It maintains a stability within that community, providing common knowledge as to how things are, how things should be knowledge based on experience. These stories become the conscience of the group. They belong to everyone. By Terry Tempest Williams Storytelling Real Things Awakens Community

I really do believe if there is hope in the world, then it is to be found within our own communities with our own neighbors, and within our own homes and families. By Terry Tempest Williams World Neighbors Families Hope Found

To write," Marguerite Duras remarked, "is also not to speak. It is to keep silent. It is to howl noiselessly. By Terry Tempest Williams Marguerite Duras Write Remarked Speak

I take a deep breath and sidestep my fear and begin speaking from the place where beauty and bravery meetwithin the chambers of a quivering heart. By Terry Tempest Williams Heart Deep Breath Sidestep Fear

We are animal. We are Earth. We are water. We are a community of human beings living on this planet together. And we forget that. We become disconnected, we lose our center point of gravity, that stillness that allows us to listen to life on a deeper level and to meet each other in a fully authentic and present way. By Terry Tempest Williams Animal Earth Water Disconnected Gravity

Story is the umbilical cord that connects us to the past, present, and future. Family. Story is a relationship between the teller and the listener, a responsibility ... Story is an affirmation of our ties to one another. By Terry Tempest Williams Story Present Past Future Umbilical

We come into this world through women: a woman who is spent, broken open, in awe. No wonder women have been worshiped ever since men first saw the crowning of a head, here, legs spread, a brushstroke of light. We are fire. We are water. We are earth. We are air. We are all things elemental. The world begins with "Yes,"Changing women: we begin again like the moon. We can no longer deny the destiny that is ours by becoming women who wait: waiting to love, waiting to speak, waiting to act. This is not patience, but pathology. We are sensual, sexual beings, intrinsically bound to both heaven and earth, our bodies a hologram. In our withholding of power, we abrogate power, and that creates war. The Australian poet Judith Wright says, "Our dream was the wrong dream, our strength was the wrong strength. Wounded, we cross the desert's emptiness and must be false to what would make us whole. By Terry Tempest Williams Women Waiting Spent Broken Open

Abundance is a dance with reciprocity - what we can give, what we can share, and what we receive in the process. By Terry Tempest Williams Abundance Reciprocity Give Share Process

This is what we can promise the future: a legacy of care. That we will be good stewards and not take too much or give back too little, that we will recognize wild nature for what it is, in all its magnificent and complex history - an unfathomable wealth that should be consciously saved, not ruthlessly spent. Privilege is what we inherit by our status as Homo sapiens living on this planet. This is the privilege of imagination. What we choose to do with our privilege as a species is up to each of us.Humility is born in wildness. We are not protecting grizzlies from extinction; they are protecting us from the extinction of experience as we engage with a world beyond ourselves. The very presence of a grizzly returns us to an ecology of awe. We tremble at what appears to be a dream yet stands before us on two legs and roars. By Terry Tempest Williams Future Care Privilege Promise Legacy

It is time for us to take off our masks, to step out from behind our personas - whatever they might be: educators, activists, biologists, geologists, writers, farmers, ranchers, and bureaucrats - and admit we are lovers, engaged in an erotics of place. Loving the land. Honoring its mysteries. Acknowledging, embracing the spirit of place - there is nothing more legitimate and there is nothing more true. That is why we are here. That is why we do what we do. There is nothing intellectual about it. We love the land. It is a primal affair. By Terry Tempest Williams Educators Activists Biologists Geologists Writers

If we are at all sensitive to the life around us, to one another's pains and joys, to the beauty and fragility of the Earth, it is all about being broken open, allowing ourselves to step out from out hardened veneers and expose our core, allowing ourselves to be vulnerable in our emotional response to the world. And how can we not respond? This is what I mean by being 'broken open.' To engage. To love. Any one of these actions of the heart will lead to a personal transformation that bears collective gifts. By Terry Tempest Williams Allowing Earth Open Joys Core

I think about the poet Rainer Maria Rilke who said that it's the questions that move us, not the answers. As a writer, I believe that it's our task, our responsibility, to hold the mirror up to social injustices that we see and to create a prayer of beauty. The questions serve us in that capacity. By Terry Tempest Williams Rainer Maria Rilke Answers Questions

If you take away all the prairie dogs, there will be no one to cry for the rain. By Terry Tempest Williams Dogs Rain Prairie Cry

These bears were reimagined in place through a collective belief and need. I do not know why they were sculpted into being, but their power is palpable. I may be blind to what has been buried here or held inside these effigy mounds for thousands of years, but I can read the landscape like Braille through the tips of my fingers translating the script of grasses into a narrative I can understand. The bears and birds and snakes written on the body of the Earth through the hands of humans who dwelled here in the Upper Mississippi River Valley are a reminder that we form the future by being caretakers of our past. By Terry Tempest Williams Reimagined Place Collective Belief Bears

What is real to me is the power of our awareness when we are focused on something beyond ourselves. It is a shaft of light shining in a dark corner. Our ability to shift our perceptions and seek creative alternatives to the conondrums of modernity is in direct proportion to our empathy. Can we imagine, witness, and ultimately feel the suffering of another? By Terry Tempest Williams Real Power Awareness Focused Corner

Having lived in Utah all of my life, I can tell that in many ways I know of no place more lonely, no place more unfamiliar. When I talk about how it is both a blessing and a burden to have those kinds of roots, it can be terribly isolating, because when you are so familiar, you know the shadow. By Terry Tempest Williams Place Utah Life Lonely Unfamiliar

When silence is a choice, it is an unnerving presence. When silence is imposed, it is censorship. By Terry Tempest Williams Silence Choice Presence Unnerving Imposed

I know the struggle from the inside out and I would never be so bold as to call myself a writer. I think that is what other people call you. But I consider myself a member of a community in Salt Lake City, in Utah, in the American West, in this country. And writing is what I do. That is the tool out of which I can express my love. By Terry Tempest Williams Writer Call Struggle Inside Bold

I am of this place. Family is a place, and my family s located here, those who are living and those who have passed. I am am settled in the scent of sage, Mount Moran's reflection at Oxbow Bend is more than a mirror of memories; it is the joy found in river otters, a reminder that there are places in the world we can return for peace unchanged. By Terry Tempest Williams Place Family Mount Moran Oxbow

But harboring regrets is making love to the past, and there is no movement here. By Terry Tempest Williams Past Harboring Regrets Making Love

It is important to remember all true change begins at the margins and moves toward the center. This does not make the climate change movement marginal, it makes it muscular, organic, with a true movement toward the center. By Terry Tempest Williams Center True Change Important Remember

I can tell that the Greater Yellowstone from the Tetons, to the Lamar Valley where wolves howl and grizzlies roam, acts as my spine, my range of memory that ties me to landscape of Other. And that the ocean from the rocky coast of Maine, to the Florida everglades, to the looming cliffs at Big Sur, sustain me, remind me we are nothing without salt water, wind, and waves. By Terry Tempest Williams Tetons Greater Yellowstone Lamar Valley

If so, then it was also here where I came to know I can survive what hurts. I believed in my capacity to stand back up and run into the waves again and again, no matter the risk. By Terry Tempest Williams Hurts Survive Risk Believed Capacity

The middle path makes me wary ... But in the middle of my life, I am coming to see the middle path as a walk with wisdom where conversations of complexity can be found, that the middle path is the path of movement ... In the right and left worlds, the stories are largely set ... We become missionaries for a position ... practitioners of the missionary position. Variety is lost. Diversity is lost. Creativity is lost in our inability to make love with the world. By Terry Tempest Williams Middle Path Lost Wary Position

I could walk forever with beauty. Our steps are not measured in miles but in the amount of time we are pulled forward by awe. This is another gift from our national parks, to be led by the vistas, to forget what nags us at home and remember what sustains us, the horizon. By Terry Tempest Williams Beauty Walk Forever Awe Parks

Evidently, selling off America's public lands is not only good for democracy, but good for the economy. It will pay the bills for building more roads and make up for the losses in the decline of timber sales. It will also help pay for the war in Iraq, a war predicted on lies. The outcry is faint. The streets are empty. We are comfortable here in the United States of America. We the people seem to be asleep, numb, and dead to the liberties being lost. By Terry Tempest Williams Good Evidently America Selling Democracy

I recently got back from Hiroshima and it was fascinating to me how the Japanese accommodate this paradox. We were talking about this word aware, which on the page looks like "aware," which speaks to both the pain and the beauty of our lives. Being there, what I perceived was that this is a sorrow that is not a grief that one forgets or recovers from, but it is a burning, searing illumination of love for the delicacy and strength of our relations. By Terry Tempest Williams Hiroshima Japanese Paradox Aware Recently

Your voice is the wildest thing you own," Brooke says to me. "And you're giving it away. You can't see it. Your obsession is blinding you." He is angry. He is talking in shorthand. "You're losing yourself. By Terry Tempest Williams Brooke Voice Wildest Thing Giving

My activism is a result of my love. So whether it's trying to preserve the wilderness in Southern Utah or writing about an erotics of place, it is that same impulse - to try to make sense of the world, to try to preserve something that is beautiful, to ask the tough questions, the push the boundaries of what is acceptable. By Terry Tempest Williams Love Activism Result Preserve Southern

Artifacts are alive. Each has a voice. They remind us what it means to be human - that it is our nature to survive, to create works of beauty to be resourceful, to be attentive to the world we live in. By Terry Tempest Williams Artifacts Alive Voice Human Survive

Beware of the charismatic wolf in sheep's clothing. There is evil in the world. You can be tricked. By Terry Tempest Williams Beware Clothing Charismatic Wolf Sheep

I was not born here by my consciousness towards a land ethic was By Terry Tempest Williams Born Consciousness Land Ethic

I feel we have to begin standing our ground in the places we love. I think that we have to demand that concern for the land, concern for the Earth, and this extension of community that we've been speaking of, is not marginal - in the same way that women's rights are not marginal, in the same way that rights for children are not marginal. There is no separation between the health of human beings and the health of the land. It is all part of a compassionate view of the world. By Terry Tempest Williams Marginal Land Love Feel Begin

I wonder about silence. Also about darkness. I love the idea that city lights are a "conspiracy" against higher thoughts. By Terry Tempest Williams Silence Conspiracy Darkness Thoughts Love

The courage to continue before the face of despair is the recognition in those eyes of darkness we find our own night vision. Women blessed with death-eyes are fearless. By Terry Tempest Williams Vision Courage Continue Face Despair

I think an erotics of place may be one of the reasons why environmentalists are seen as subversive. There is a backlash now: ... [ellipsis in source] take all the regulations away; weaken existing legislation; the endangered species act is too severe, too restrictive; let there be carte blanche for real-estate developers. Because if we really have to confront wildness, solitude, and serenity, both the fierceness and compassionate nature of the land, then we ultimately have to confront it in ourselves, and it's easier to be numb, to be distracted, to be disengaged. By Terry Tempest Williams Subversive Erotics Place Reasons Environmentalists

Choosing with integrity means finding ways to speak up that honor your reality, the reality of others, and your willingness to meet in the center of that large field. It's hard sometimes. By Terry Tempest Williams Choosing Field Reality Integrity Finding

The hostility of this landscape teaches me how to be quiet and unobtrusive, how to find grace among spiders with a poisonous bite. I sat on a lone boulder in the midst of the curlews. By now, they had grown accustomed to me. This too, I found encouraging - that in the face of stressful intrusions, we can eventually settle in. One begins to almost trust the intruder as a presence that demands greater intent toward life. On a day like today when the air is dry and smells of salt, I have found my open space, my solitude, and sky. And I have found the birds who require it. By Terry Tempest Williams Unobtrusive Bite Found Hostility Landscape

I will never be able to say what is in my heart because words fail us, because it is in our nature to protect, because there are times when what is public and what is private must be discerned. By Terry Tempest Williams Protect Discerned Heart Words Fail

I am obsessed by the idea of silence. I went through an entire library studying art, artists and their critics, philosophers, too, on the meaning and significance of the color white. I dreamed of white birds and white bears. I thought about the white pages of my mother's journals. I became enthralled with John Cage and his work, 4'33, his masterpiece of ambient sound. Rauschenberg, too. And then at some point I let go. What sticks to the soul is what gets placed on the page. Maybe that's the unknown part, the mystery, the power of the empty page. By Terry Tempest Williams White Silence Obsessed Idea Page

Desert strategies are useful: In times of drought, pull your resources inward; when water is scarce, find moisture in seeds; to stay strong and supple, send a taproot down deep; run when required, hide when necessary; when hot go underground; do not fear darkness, it's where one comes alive. By Terry Tempest Williams Desert Drought Pull Scarce Find

What I fear and desire most in this world is passion. I fear it because it promises to be spontaneous, out of my control, unnamed, beyond my reasonable self. I desire it because passion has color, like the landscape before me. It is not pale. It is not neutral. It reveals the backside of the heart. By Terry Tempest Williams Fear World Desire Passion Unnamed

Watching the spontaneous acts of kindness, compassion, and generosity, courage, and bravery in the aftermath of the Boston marathon bombings was so deeply moving. It is in our nature to want to help, to serve, to be part of something larger than ourselves. We have a desire to connect with others. We want to make a difference in the world. I would call this a spiritual longing to be whole, interrelated, interconnected. By Terry Tempest Williams Boston Compassion Courage Watching Kindness

I am afraid of silence. Silence creates a pathway to peace through pain, the pain of a distracted and frantic mind before it becomes still. By Terry Tempest Williams Silence Afraid Pain Creates Pathway

I think it could be argued that I am not heard, in the broadest sense. That is not my concern. My concern, a question really, is, do I have the courage to speak? If I speak I believe someone will respond. It then becomes my responsibility to listen to that person. And in listening, together we create a space where people can be heard. It's the conversation that I care most deeply about; this is the space I want to honor, respect, and protect. This is my faith in the open space of democracy. By Terry Tempest Williams Concern Sense Argued Broadest Space

I live just outside of Salt Lake City in a place called Emigration Canyon. It's on the Mormon trail. So I feel deeply connected, not only because of my Mormon roots, which are five or six generations, but because of where we live. There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not mindful of the spiritual sovereignty that was sought by my people in coming to Utah. By Terry Tempest Williams Canyon Salt Lake City Emigration

When I'm standing in the middle of the salt flats, where you swear that the pupils of your eyes have turned white because of the searing heat that is rising from the desert, I think of my childhood, I think of my mother, my father, my grandparents; I think of the history that we hold there and it is beautiful to me. But it is both a blessing and a burden to be rooted in place. It's recognizing the pattern of things, almost feeling a place before you even see it. In Southern Utah, on the Colorado plateau where canyon walls rise upward like praying hands, that is a holy place to me. By Terry Tempest Williams Flats Desert Childhood Mother Father

As children, we had access to all the open space imaginable. We would set up camps in rural Utah where the Tempest Company was at work laying pipe. We spent time around the West in Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, and Colorado. Wild beautiful places. Now, many of these natural places have disappeared under the press of development. By Terry Tempest Williams Children Imaginable Access Open Space

Here is the woman who had seriously considered taking LSD under the supervision of a medical doctor so she could have "a mind-altering experience," who had read herself straight out of Mormonism and into Eastern religious thoughtbut refused to replace one dogma with another. By Terry Tempest Williams Lsd Mormonism Eastern Experience Woman

When you are with a landscape or a human being where there is no need to speak, but simply to listen, to perceive, to feel. By Terry Tempest Williams Speak Listen Perceive Feel Landscape

The choices and decisions we make in terms of how we use the land ultimately affect our very DNA. Environmental issues are life issues. By Terry Tempest Williams Dna Choices Decisions Make Terms

What is evolution if not creative adaptation and the progression of our own souls? By Terry Tempest Williams Souls Evolution Creative Adaptation Progression

I write about nuclear tests in Refuge - "The Clan of One-Breasted Women." With so many of the women in my family being diagnosed with breast cancer, mastectomies led to one-breasted women. I believe it is the result of nuclear fallout. By Terry Tempest Williams Refuge Clan Women Onebreasted Write

We write out of our humanity by writing through our direct experience. That which is most personal is most general, which becomes both our insight and protection as a writers. This is our authority as women, as human beings. By Terry Tempest Williams Experience Write Humanity Writing Direct

I admire how she protects her energy and understands her limitations. By Terry Tempest Williams Limitations Admire Protects Energy Understands

When it comes to words, rather than using our own voice, authentic and unpracticed, we steal someone else's to shield our fear. By Terry Tempest Williams Words Voice Authentic Unpracticed Fear

Listening over and over to the voices through a family of instruments allowed us to recognize and appreciate the dignity and uniqueness of each living thing in the meadow and forest. By Terry Tempest Williams Listening Forest Voices Family Instruments

I think my heart breaks daily living in Salt Lake City, Utah. But I still love it. And that is the richness, the texture. By Terry Tempest Williams Utah City Salt Lake Heart

Beauty is transformed over time, and not without destruction. By Terry Tempest Williams Beauty Time Destruction Transformed

Our public lands - whether a national park or monument, wildlife refuge, forest or prairie - make each one of us land-rich. It is our inheritance as citizens of a country called America. By Terry Tempest Williams Lands Monument Wildlife Refuge Forest

In this era where the war on terror is used as an excuse to exploit and plunder, and sell off our public lands, in this new world where the World Bank and World Trade Organization honor corporate rule over local enterprises, and where environmental issues are being usurped in the favor of more jobs and a robust economy, Where is the place for wilderness? By Terry Tempest Williams World Bank Trade Organization Plunder

Our institutions and agencies are no longer working for us. It is time to reimagine the wilderness movement as a movement of direct action, time to reimagine our public lands as sanctuaries, refuges, and sacred lands. Time to rethink what is acceptable and what is not. By Terry Tempest Williams Time Institutions Agencies Longer Working

If we allow ourselves contemplative time in nature-whether it's gardening, going for a walk with the dog, or being in the heart of the southern Utah wilderness-then we can hear the voice of our conscience. If we listen to that voice, it asks us to be conscious. And if we become conscious we choose to live lives of consequence. By Terry Tempest Williams Utah Gardening Dog Conscience Voice

When you look at the Pueblo communities along the Rio Grande, when you talk to the Navajo people, the Ute people, and certainly the native peoples of California who still have their communities intact, it is what they have always known: that we are not apart from nature but a part of it. By Terry Tempest Williams Grande Pueblo Rio Navajo Ute

Every time we make love to a human being, fully, we are making love to everything that lives and breathes. In that sense it becomes communion. It is a sacrament. By Terry Tempest Williams Fully Love Breathes Time Make

Creativity ignited a spark. In that moment, I saw that art is not peripheral, beauty is not optional, but a strategy for survival. By Terry Tempest Williams Creativity Spark Ignited Moment Peripheral

Each of us contributes our own piece to the whole, each in our own way, each in our own time with the gifts and talents that are ours. You ask about possible vehicles for change: question, stand, speak, act. Engage in unruly behavior. Disturb the status quo. Take direct action. Commit civil disobedience. Make art. Build community. Dance. Sing. Farm. Cook. Create something beautiful and then give it away. Find your own monkey wrench and use it with the force of love. Sharpen your pencil. Vote. By Terry Tempest Williams Contributes Piece Time Gifts Talents

It's strange how deserts turn us into believers. I believe in walking in a landscape of mirages, because you learn humility. I believe in living in a land of little water because life is drawn together. And I believe in the gathering of bones as a testament to spirits that have moved on. If the desert is holy, it is because it is a forgotten place that allows us to remember the sacred. Perhaps that is why every pilgrimage to the desert is a pilgrimage to the self. By Terry Tempest Williams Believers Strange Turn Desert Pilgrimage

Today, I feel stronger, learning to live within the natural cycles of a day and to not expect too much of myself. As women, we hold the moon in our bellies. It is too much to ask to operate on full-moon energy three hundred and sixty-five days a year. I am in a crescent phase. By Terry Tempest Williams Today Stronger Learning Feel Live

The moment Eve bit into the apple, her eyes opened and she became free. She exposed the truth of what every woman knows: to find our sovereign voice often requires a betrayal. By Terry Tempest Williams Eve Apple Free Moment Bit

Today, everyone thinks we need to stay positive and hopeful and not be completely honest about what we are seeing, what we know to be true. Whether we're talking about climate change or what's occurring on the streets in Ferguson, we are so afraid of offending people...and then, we only talk to our own constituencies and its' the same rhetoric over and over again until the words become bloodless. (p. 325) By Terry Tempest Williams Today True Stay Positive Hopeful

I can't imagine a secular life, a spiritual life, an intellectual life, a physical life. I mean, we would be completely wrought with schizophrenia, wouldn't we? By Terry Tempest Williams Life Imagine Secular Spiritual Intellectual

I believe we must do things in our lives for the right reasons, because we enjoy doing them, with no expectation of getting something back in return. Otherwise, we are constantly being disappointed." She moved her turquoise bracelet back and forth on her wrist. "So I had two sons, John and Richard, because I wanted to, not because I thought they would rescue me in old age. I got out of all social organizations and clubs in my fifties so I could spend time with my grandchildren, not because they would give something back to Jack and me later on, but because that was what I wanted to doand I have loved doing it. Believe me, these have been selfish decisions. By Terry Tempest Williams Back Reasons Return Things Lives

The story of the Utah prairie dog is the story of the range of our compassion. If we can extend our idea of community to include the lowliest of creatures, call them 'the untouchables', then we will indeed be closer to a path of peace and tolerance. if we cannot accommodate 'the other', the shadow we will see on our own home ground will be the forecast of our own species' extended winter of the soul. By Terry Tempest Williams Story Utah Compassion Prairie Dog

At the heart of Mormonism is a high regard for community. That is its strength. I have great respect for that. By Terry Tempest Williams Mormonism Community Heart High Regard

By definition, our national parks in all their particularity and peculiarity show us as much about ourselves as the landscapes they honor and protect. They can be seen as holograms of an America born of shadow and light; dimensional; full of contradictions and complexities. Our dreams, our generosities, our cruelties and crimes are absorbed into these parks like water. The poet Rumi says, "Water, stories, the By Terry Tempest Williams Definition Protect Water National Particularity

Literature was life, and reading became an open door to a world beyond the familiar. By Terry Tempest Williams Literature Life Familiar Reading Open

The climate change movement is a river overflowing seeping into every nook and cranny. By Terry Tempest Williams Cranny Climate Change Movement River

I am a Mormon woman, I am not orthodox. It is the lens through which I see the world. I hear the Tabernacle Choir and it still makes me weep. By Terry Tempest Williams Mormon Woman Orthodox Tabernacle Choir

I have inherited a belief in community, the promise that a gathering of the spirit can both create and change culture. By Terry Tempest Williams Community Culture Inherited Belief Promise

When I write, I put one foot in front of the other. It's an act of faith. I just follow my heart. By Terry Tempest Williams Write Put Foot Front Faith

I look at Los Angeles and I ask myself, How can this ever be sustainable? And what are we contributing to that? Because we are all complicit. None of us is without blame. It's so difficult and it's so overwhelming and I think we have to make small choices in our own lives that can loom large collectively. By Terry Tempest Williams Los Angeles Sustainable Contributing Complicit

Members of the Coyote Clan are not easily identified, but there are clues. You can see it in their eyes. They are joyful and they are fierce. They can cry louder and laugh harder than anyone on the planet. And they have an enormous range.The Coyote Clan is a raucous bunch: they have drunk from desert potholes and belched forth toads. They tell stories with such virtuosity that you'll swear you've been in the presence of preachers.The Coyote Clan is also serene. They can float on their backs down the length of any river or lose entire afternoons to the contemplation of stone.Members of the Clan court risk and will dance on slickrock as flash floods erode the ground beneath their feet. It doesn't matter. They understand the earth re-creates itself day after day. By Terry Tempest Williams Clan Coyote Members Identified Clues

I think direct political action, civil disobedience, in particular, is something to be taken very seriously. By Terry Tempest Williams Action Civil Disobedience Direct Political

To see the yellow fritillaries burst forth after the deep snows of winter and know that the bears are soon to follow is to be attentive to wild nature's seasonal fugue of infinite composition and succession. The great gray owl sitting on a snag near Sawmill Ponds is not simply a bird but a heightened intelligence with golden eyes behind a mask of feathers. By Terry Tempest Williams Succession Yellow Fritillaries Burst Deep

This is an incredibly creative time. It is a difficult time. It is a disparaging time. A time of cultural and global transitions based on the realization that the Earth cannot support nonsustainable practices anymore. By Terry Tempest Williams Time Incredibly Creative Earth Difficult

What is private belongs to me alone. What is personal belongs to all of us through the shared experience of being human. By Terry Tempest Williams Belongs Private Human Personal Shared

I truly believe that to stay home, to learn the names of things, to realize who we live among ... then I believe a politics of place emerges where we are deeply accountable to our communities, to our neighborhoods, to our home ... If we are not rooted deeply in place, making that commitment to dig in and stay put ... then I think we are living a life without specificity, and then our lives become abstractions. Then we enter a place of true desolation. By Terry Tempest Williams Home Things Place Learn Realize

For me, it always comes back to the land, respecting the land, the wildlife, the plants, the rivers, mountains, and deserts, the absolute essential bedrock of our lives. This is the source of where my power lies, the source of where all our power lies. By Terry Tempest Williams Land Mountains Respecting Wildlife Plants

Silence introduced in a society that worships noise is like the Moon exposing the night. Behind darkness is our fear. Within silence our voice dwells. What is required from both is that we be still. We focus. We listen. We see and we hear. The unexpected emerges. By Terry Tempest Williams Moon Night Introduced Society Worships

I was not rebelling by smoking dope or drinking, I was testing ideas. I was experimenting with voice, what I could say and still be heard in an atmosphere of prescribed truths. By Terry Tempest Williams Drinking Ideas Rebelling Smoking Dope

When Emily Dickinson writes, "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul," she reminds us, as the birds do, of the liberation and pragmatism of belief. By Terry Tempest Williams Hope Emily Dickinson Writes Soul

And so we polish our own lives, creating landscapes and canyons and peaks with the very silt we try to avoid, the dirt we disavow or hide or deny. It is the dirt of our lives - the depressions, the losses, the inequities, the failing grades in trigonometry, the e-mails sent in fear or hate or haste, the ways in which we encounter people different from us - that shape us, polish us to a heady sheen, make us in fact more beautiful, more elemental, more artful and lasting. By Terry Tempest Williams Lives Dirt Polish Creating Avoid

I have refused to believe that Mother will die. And by denying her cancer, even her death, I deny her life. Denial stops us from listening. I cannot hear what Mother is saying. I can only hear what I want. But denial lies. It protects us from the potency of a truth we cannot yet bear to accept. It takes our hands and leads us to places of comfort. Denial flourishes in the familiar. It seduces us with our own desires and cleverly constructs walls around us to keep us safe. By Terry Tempest Williams Mother Die Refused Denial Hear

What needs to be counted on to have a voice? Courage. Anger. Love. Something to say; someone to speak to; someone to listen. I have talked to myself for years in the privacy of my journals. By Terry Tempest Williams Voice Counted Courage Anger Love

Opera has the power to warn you that you have wasted your life. You haven't acted on your desires. You've suffered a stunted, vicarious existence. You've silenced your passions. The volume, height, depth, lushness, and excess of operatic utterance reveal, by contrast, how small your gestures have been until now, how impoverished your physicality; you have only used a fraction of your bodily endowment, and your throat is closed. By Terry Tempest Williams Opera Life Power Warn Wasted

Each horizon, each place holds its own evolutionary power be it the prairie or the plateaus, the mountains or the marshes at Great Salt Lake. For me, this is the nature of peace. Our task is to learn how to see it, feel it, hear it, and care for these places as our own home ground. By Terry Tempest Williams Lake Great Salt Horizon Plateaus

These handwritten words in the pages of my journal confirm that from an early age I have experienced each encounter in my life twice: once in the world, and once again on the page. By Terry Tempest Williams World Handwritten Words Journal Confirm

What every woman knows is that we are remade each time we make love, each time we give birth; each time we feel the blood making its way through our body into our cupped hands, we remember it is our destiny to make change. By Terry Tempest Williams Time Make Love Birth Hands

Hopefully there will come a time when I have no words, when I can honor and hold that kind of stillness that I so need, crave, and desire in the natural world. By Terry Tempest Williams Crave Words World Time Honor

This is the Hour of Land, when our mistakes and shortcomings must be placed in the perspective of time. The Hour of Land is where we remember what we have forgotten: We are not the only species who lives and dreams on the planet. There is something enduring that circulates in the heart of nature that deserves our respect and attention. By Terry Tempest Williams Hour Land Time Mistakes Shortcomings

Today majesty is the length from where I stand to the summit of the mountain we are climbing. This mountain has majesty and hold its own authority above all others. By Terry Tempest Williams Today Climbing Majesty Mountain Length

My family lives all around me. We see each other daily. It's very, very complicated. I think that families hold us together and they split us apart. By Terry Tempest Williams Family Lives Daily Complicated Families

Space is the twin sister of time. If we have open space then we have open time to breathe, to dream, to dare, to play, to pray to move freely, so freely, in a world our minds have forgotten, but our bodies remember. By Terry Tempest Williams Space Time Freely Twin Sister

Blind obedience in the name of patriotism or religion ultimately takes our lives. By Terry Tempest Williams Blind Lives Obedience Patriotism Religion

There are two important days in a woman's life: the day she is born and the day she finds out why. By Terry Tempest Williams Day Life Important Woman Born

Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated. By Terry Tempest Williams Sing Time Joy World Birds

I speculate over some of the Anglo nomenclature of birds: Wilson's snipe, Forster's tern ... : What natural images do these names conjure up in our minds? What integrity do we give back to the birds with our labels. By Terry Tempest Williams Wilson Forster Anglo Snipe Tern

How do we create beauty in a broken world? How do we create a view of sustainability in an economy that is crashing? How do we reconfigure our lives, how do we pick up the pieces and create a meaningful life? So, yes, we have a different form of leadership but the questions remain the same. By Terry Tempest Williams Create World Beauty Broken Crashing

My mother's journals are a shadow play with mine. I am a woman wedded to words. Words cast a shadow. Without a shadow there is no depth. Without a shadow there is no substance. If we have no shadow, it means we are invisible. As long as I have a shadow, I am alive. By Terry Tempest Williams Shadow Mine Mother Journals Play

A shadow is never created in darkness. It is born of light. We can be blind to it and blinded by it. Our shadow asks us to look at what we don't want to see By Terry Tempest Williams Darkness Created Shadow Light Born

John Lilly suggests whales are a culture maintained by oral traditions. Stories. The experience of an individual whale is valuable to the survival of its community. I think of my family stories - Mother's in particular - how much I need them now, how much I will need them later. It has been said when an individual dies, whole worlds die with them. The same could be said of each passing whale. By Terry Tempest Williams Lilly John Traditions Stories Suggests

We borrow. We steal. We purchase what we need and buy what we don't. We acquire things, people, places, all in the process of losing ourselves. Busyness is the religion of distraction. I cannot talk to you, because I have too much to do. By Terry Tempest Williams Borrow Steal People Places Things

The sin I have committed is the sin of adoption. I have adopted a different set of beliefs from the beliefs I was raised to obey. But this definition of sin over time has become my joy. I do have other gods before me, many, and none are a white elderly man sitting on a gilded throne in heaven. Pronghorn antelope holds authority for me, like a priest. By Terry Tempest Williams Sin Adoption Committed Beliefs Obey

We find our voice, we lose our voice, we retrieve it, honor it, and hopefully, learn how to share it with others and stand in the center of our power. Translation is a theme. Fear and courage are a theme. By Terry Tempest Williams Voice Theme Honor Learn Power

The creative process ignites our imagination, and I believe that that same imagination is what will propel us forward with issues of social change. I do think we have to acknowledge that we are a very capitalistic and consumptive nation, and that talk about conservation or issues of sustainability is never going to be popular with the dominant culture because it means checks and balances on an economy that is reserved for the dollar, rather than an economy that honors and respects spiritual resources and the right of all life to participate on the planet, not just our species. By Terry Tempest Williams Imagination Issues Change Economy Creative

Find something that matters deeply to you and pursue it. Question. Stand. Speak. Act. Make us uncomfortable. Make us think. By Terry Tempest Williams Find Make Question Matters Deeply

Good writing must stay open to the questions and not fall prey to the pull of a polemic, otherwise, words simply become predictable, sentimental, and stale. By Terry Tempest Williams Sentimental Good Polemic Words Predictable

Suffering shows us what we are attached to - perhaps the umbilical cord between Mother and me has never been cut. Dying doesn't cause suffering. Resistance to dying does. By Terry Tempest Williams Mother Cut Suffering Shows Attached

A trip to the hospital is always a descent into the macabre. I have never trusted a place with shiny floors. By Terry Tempest Williams Macabre Trip Hospital Descent Floors

To hold silence and to be silenced are two very different experiences. And so another theme emerges, that of light and shadow. When we share our voice, who benefits? When we withhold, who benefits? And what are the consequences and costs of both? By Terry Tempest Williams Experiences Benefits Hold Silence Silenced

I think we are living a life without specificity, and then our lives become abstractions. By Terry Tempest Williams Specificity Abstractions Living Life Lives

The sin we commit against each other as women is lack of support. We hurt. We hurt each other. We hide. We project. We become mute or duplicitous, and we fester like boiling water until one day we erupt like a geyser. Do we forget we unravel in grief? By Terry Tempest Williams Support Sin Commit Women Lack

I would say I am at peace with the mystery of my mother's journals. Of course, I will always wonder, but isn't that the creative tension of living with uncertainty? By leaving me her empty journals, my mother has made herself very present. By Terry Tempest Williams Journals Mother Peace Mystery Uncertainty

I could not separate the Bird Refuge from my family. Devastation respects no boundaries. The landscape of my childhood and the landscape of my family, the two things I had always regarded as bedrock, were now subject to change. Quicksand. By Terry Tempest Williams Bird Refuge Family Separate Landscape

I personally have seen flamingos throughout the state of Utah perched proudly on lawns and in the gravel gardens of trailer courts. These flamingos, of course, are not Phoenicopterus ruber, but pink, plastic flamingos that can easily be purchased at any hardware store.It is curious that we need to create an environment foreign from our own. In 1985, over 450,000 plastic flamingos were purchased in the United States. And the number is rising. Pink flamingos teetering on suburban lawns - our unnatural link to the natural world. By Terry Tempest Williams Utah Flamingos Plastic Courts Personally

There are things within the culture that absolutely enrage me, and for me it is sacred rage. But it's not just peculiar to Mormonism - it's any patriarchy that I think stops, thwarts, or denies our creativity. By Terry Tempest Williams Rage Things Culture Absolutely Enrage

I wonder, What is it to be human? Especially now that we are so urban. How do we remember our connection with place? What is the umbilical cord that roots us to that primal, instinctive, erotic place? Every time I walk to the edge of this continent and feel the sand beneath my feet, feel the seafoam move up my body, I think, "Ah, yes, evolution." It's there, we just forget. By Terry Tempest Williams Human Place Feel Urban Instinctive

The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy. Daily prayers are delivered on the lips of breaking waves, the whisperings of grasses, the shimmering of leaves. By Terry Tempest Williams Holy World Daily Waves Grasses

I am not so interested in religion or dogma of any kind. It is too restrictive for me, too organizational, too hierarchical, and too tied up in power and being right. You call it a "rabid evangelism." By Terry Tempest Williams Kind Interested Religion Dogma Organizational

I accept the Organic Trinity of Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal with as much authority as I accept the Holy Trinity. Both are sacred. By Terry Tempest Williams Vegetable Trinity Mineral Accept Organic

I wonder what would happen if you gave up your need to be right? By Terry Tempest Williams Happen Gave

Story is a sacred visualization, a way of echoing experience. By Terry Tempest Williams Story Visualization Experience Sacred Echoing

There is comfort in keeping what is sacred inside us not as a secret, but as a prayer. By Terry Tempest Williams Secret Prayer Comfort Keeping Sacred

When we really need to work hard to make sure that these ideas about constructive social change culturally, ecologically and politically, come to pass. And that's only going to happen if people support the leadership, because the same power structures are still in place, and it's not in their best interests to change. By Terry Tempest Williams Culturally Ecologically Politically Pass Change

When Pico [Iyer] talks about home being a place of isolation, I think he's right. But it's the paradox. I think that's why I so love Great Salt Lake. Every day when I look out at that lake, I think, "Ah, paradox" - a body of water than no one can drink. It's the liquid lie of the desert. But I think we have those paradoxes within us and certainly the whole idea of home is windswept with paradox. By Terry Tempest Williams Iyer Pico Paradox Talks Isolation

Most of all, differences of opinion are opportunities for learning. By Terry Tempest Williams Differences Learning Opinion Opportunities

I believe the personal is the collective. One of the ironies of writing memoir is in using the "I" it becomes an alchemical "we." This is the sorcery of literature. By Terry Tempest Williams Collective Personal Alchemical Ironies Writing

I write to create red in a world that often appears black and white. By Terry Tempest Williams White Write Create Red World

I wonder how, among the Fremont, mothers and daughters shared their world. Did they walk side by side along the lake edge? What stories did they tell while weaving strips of bulrush into baskets? How did daughters bury their mothers and exercise their grief? What were the secret rituals of women? I feel certain they must have been tied to birds. By Terry Tempest Williams Fremont World Shared Mothers Side

These are difficult time, transformative times- times of extreme actions especially within our national parks. Extreme drought. Extreme fires. Extreme development with extreme policy shifts needed in the name of global warming. The world is changing dramatically, both ecologically as well as politically. But I believe our greatest transformation as a species will be spiritual. The word "we" must include all species. By Terry Tempest Williams Extreme Times Transformative Parks Time

The heart is the path to wisdom because it dares to be vulnerable in the presence of power By Terry Tempest Williams Power Heart Path Wisdom Dares

There becomes little doubt as to why power chooses to support power. Rwanda becomes invisible once again. We have nothing America wants. By Terry Tempest Williams Power Doubt Chooses Support America

The only thing I have done religiously in my life is keep a journal. I have hundreds of them, filled with feathers, flowers, photographs, and words - without locks, open on my shelves. By Terry Tempest Williams Journal Flowers Photographs Thing Religiously

To engage in civil disobedience is to feel the abundance of courage, the gratitude for a democracy that still invites us to speak from our hearts, to act from our conscience and have faith in the consequences of moral action. Abundance is a form of consciousness. By Terry Tempest Williams Courage Hearts Action Abundance Engage

To me, we are in the midst of such broad-scale destruction, both psychically and physically, that the only thing that can threaten the grip, loosen the hold, of economism, I believe, is a discussion of the sacred born out of our regard and compassion and intelligence for the earth and the creatures on the earth. By Terry Tempest Williams Earth Destruction Physically Grip Loosen

Our sense of community and compassionate intelligence must be extended to all life forms, plants, animals, rocks, rivers, and human beings. This is the story of our past and it will be the story of our future. By Terry Tempest Williams Plants Animals Rocks Rivers Forms

To write requires an ego, a belief that what you say matters. Writing also requires an aching curiosity leading you to discover, uncover, what is gnawing at your bones. By Terry Tempest Williams Ego Matters Requires Uncover Write

The legacy of the Wilderness Act is a legacy of care. It is the act of loving beyond ourselves, beyond our own species, beyond our own time. To honor wildlands and wild lives that we may never see, much less understand, is to acknowledge the world does not revolve around us. The Wilderness Act is an act of respect that protects the land and ourselves from our own annihilation. By Terry Tempest Williams Act Legacy Wilderness Care Species

Water is nothing if not ingemination, an encore to the tenacity of life. By Terry Tempest Williams Water Ingemination Life Encore Tenacity

Finding beauty in a broken world is creating beauty in the world we find. By Terry Tempest Williams Beauty Finding Find World Broken

True eloquence has an edge, sharp and clean. By Terry Tempest Williams True Edge Sharp Clean Eloquence

There is an art to writing, and it is not always disclosure. The act itself can be beautiful, revelatory, and private. By Terry Tempest Williams Writing Disclosure Revelatory Art Beautiful

I can only tell where I feel most at home, which is in the erosional landscape of the red rock desert of southern Utah, where the Colorado River cuts through sandstone and the geologic history of the Earth is exposed: our home in Castle Valley. By Terry Tempest Williams Utah Valley Home Colorado River

Buddha says there are two kinds of suffering: the kind that leads to more suffering and the kind that brings an end to suffering. By Terry Tempest Williams Suffering Kind Buddha Leads Brings

I think that what I was talking about was that as a woman growing up in a Mormon tradition in Salt Lake City, Utah, we were taught - and we are still led to believe - that the most important value is obedience. But that obedience in the name of religion or patriotism ultimately takes our souls. So I think it's this larger issue of what is acceptable and what is not; where do we maintain obedience and law and where do we engage in civil disobedience - where we can cross the line physically and metaphorically and say, "No, this is no longer appropriate behavior." By Terry Tempest Williams Utah City Mormon Salt Lake

A mother and daughter are an edge. Edges are ecotones, transitional zones, places of danger or opportunity. House-dwelling tension. When I stand on the edge of the land and sea, I feel this tension, this fluid line of transition. High tide. Low tide. It is the sea's reach and retreat that reminds me we have been human for only a very short time. By Terry Tempest Williams Tension Mother Daughter Tide Edge

Our ability to travel is a privilege. But it is also a choice. Money is time. Where do we spend out time? Wilderness is not my leisure or my recreation. It is my sanity. By Terry Tempest Williams Privilege Ability Travel Time Choice

The birds and I share a natural history. It is a matter of rootedness, of living inside a place for so long that the mind and imagination fuse. By Terry Tempest Williams History Birds Share Natural Rootedness

Our correspondences have wings - paper birds that fly from my house to yours - flocks of ideas crisscrossing the country. Once opened, a connection is made. We are not alone in the world. By Terry Tempest Williams Wings Paper Flocks Country Correspondences

To me, writing is about how we see. The writers I want to read teach me how to see-see the world differently. In my writing there is no separation between how I observe the world and how I write the world. We write through our eyes. We write through our body. We write out of what we know. By Terry Tempest Williams Write World Writing Differently Writers

We are aching to come together and I think it has little to do with liberal or conservative discourse. I think it has to do with increasing disconnection with what is real and soul-serving. By Terry Tempest Williams Discourse Aching Liberal Conservative Soulserving

I still have great faith in democracy. I have great belief in the power of community. By Terry Tempest Williams Democracy Great Faith Community Belief

Our kinship with Earth must be maintained; otherwise, we will find ourselves trapped in the center of our own paved-over souls with no way out. By Terry Tempest Williams Earth Maintained Kinship Find Trapped

What else are we to do with our obsessions? Do they feed us? Or are we simply scavenging our memories for one gleaming image to tell the truth of what is hunting us? By Terry Tempest Williams Obsessions Feed Simply Scavenging Memories

Terry, to keep hoping for life in the midst of letting go is to rob me of the moment I am in. By Terry Tempest Williams Terry Hoping Life Midst Letting

I think our lack of intimacy with the land has initiated a lack of intimacy with each other. What we perceive as non- human, outside of us, is actually in direct relationship with us. By Terry Tempest Williams Intimacy Lack Land Initiated Human

Through revision, I enter the realm of the unspeakable and find the words that have eluded me. By Terry Tempest Williams Revision Enter Realm Unspeakable Find

Wilderness is the source of what we can imagine and what we cannot - the taproot of consciousness.It will survive us. By Terry Tempest Williams Wilderness Source Imagine Taproot Consciousnessit

We have to speak out now on behalf of our community and on behalf of the land and say they're the same thing and say No, we are not rolling over and No, this is not a corporate enterprise. This is democracy in the fullest sense and we must have regard and reverence and those are the cornerstones of a just society. By Terry Tempest Williams Behalf Enterprise Speak Community Land

What is the most important thing one learns in school? Self-esteem, support, and friendship. By Terry Tempest Williams Selfesteem Support School Important Thing

The difference between fear and awe is a matter of our eyes adjusting. By Terry Tempest Williams Adjusting Difference Fear Awe Matter

I love the interrelatedness of things. By Terry Tempest Williams Things Love Interrelatedness

Who wants to be a goddess when we can be human? Perfection is a flaw disguised as control. By Terry Tempest Williams Human Goddess Perfection Control Flaw

It is not possible to satisfy women," a friend said. "We are disturbed if we have children too young. Disturbed if we have then later. Disturbed if we don't have children at all. By Terry Tempest Williams Disturbed Women Satisfy Friend Children

Story is a relationship between the teller and the listener, a responsibility. After the listening you become accountable for the sacred knowledge that has been shared. By Terry Tempest Williams Story Listener Responsibility Relationship Teller

Downwinders, meaning those people, individuals, communities that were downwind of the nuclear test site. During those years when we were testing atomic bombs above ground, when we watched them for entertainment from the roofs of our high schools, little did we know what was raining down on us, little did we know what would appear years later. By Terry Tempest Williams Downwinders Individuals Meaning People Communities

I am interested and deeply curious about our need for a spiritual life, a life of greater meaning, and how we come to a more ethical view of life within our communities that is more inclusive than exclusive, one that is extended even beyond our own species. By Terry Tempest Williams Life Meaning Exclusive Species Interested

I trace my genealogy back to the land. Human and wild, I can see myself whole, not isolated but integrated in time and place. Our genetic makeup is not so different from the collared lizard, the canyon wren now calling, or the great horned owl who watches from the cottonwood near the creek. Mountain lion is as mysterious a creature as any soul I know. Is not the tissue of family always a movement between harmony and distance? By Terry Tempest Williams Land Trace Genealogy Back Human

If a man knew what a woman never forgets, he would love her differently. By Terry Tempest Williams Forgets Differently Man Knew Woman

Agitation gives birth to creation. By Terry Tempest Williams Agitation Creation Birth

Greed is a deprivation of abundance, a hoarding, a constriction of energy. By Terry Tempest Williams Greed Abundance Hoarding Energy Deprivation

We are contemporary citizens living in a technological world. Swimming in crosscultural waters can be dangerous, and if you are honest you can't stay there very long. Sooner or later you have to look at your own reflection and decide what to do with yourself.We are urban people. We make periodic pilgrimages to the country ... If we align ourselves with the spirit of place we will find humility fused with joy.The land holds stories. By Terry Tempest Williams World Contemporary Citizens Living Technological

Despair shows us the limit of our imagination. Imaginations shared create collaboration, collaboration creates community, and community inspires social change. By Terry Tempest Williams Despair Shows Limit Collaboration Community

Abundance is an expansion of energy. Abundance is a form of gratitude, a generosity, a modesty, a bow toward others - what we can give, what we can share, rather than what we can take. By Terry Tempest Williams Abundance Energy Expansion Gratitude Generosity

When a woman allows a man to enter her, it is not just a physical act, but a spiritual one, ... We risk everything trying to touch the ineffable by touching each other. By Terry Tempest Williams Act Woman Man Enter Physical

Writing becomes an act of compassion toward life, the life we so often refuse to see because if we look too closely or feel too deeply, there may be no end to our suffering. But words empower us, move us beyond our suffering, and set us free. This is the sorcery of literature. We are healed by our stories. By Terry Tempest Williams Suffering Life Writing Deeply Act

The human heart is the first home of democracy. It is where we embrace our questions. Can we be equitable? Can we be generous? Can we listen with our whole beings, not just our minds, and offer our attention rather than our opinions? And do we have enough resolve in our hearts to act courageously, relentlessly, without giving upevertrusting our fellow citizens to join with us in our determined pursuit of a living democracy? By Terry Tempest Williams Human Home Democracy Questions Embrace

Perhaps the most radical act we can commit is to stay home. By Terry Tempest Williams Home Radical Act Commit Stay

If we fail in this country, it is because we are too timid. If we lose our way in America, it is because we are too complacent. We must become conscious to the real threats before us and act creatively, imaginatively, now. We can no longer look to leadership beyond ourselves. By Terry Tempest Williams Country Timid Fail America Complacent

The act of civil disobedience is the act of taking our anger and turning it into sacred rage. It is a personal and collective gesture of resistance and insistance. By Terry Tempest Williams Act Rage Civil Disobedience Taking

The irony of our existence is this: we are infinitesimal in the grand scheme of evolution, a tiny organism on Earth. And yet, personally, collectively, we are changing the planet through our voracity, the velocity of our reach, our desires, our ambitions, and our appetites. We multiply, our hunger multiplies, and our insatiable craving accelerates.Consumption is a progressive disease. By Terry Tempest Williams Earth Evolution Irony Existence Infinitesimal

Wilderness is not a place of isolation but contemplation. Refuge. Refugees.....Wilderness is a knife that cuts through pretense and exposes fear. Even in remote country, you cannot escape your mind. By Terry Tempest Williams Wilderness Contemplation Refuge Place Isolation

Perhaps we project on to starlings that which we deplore in ourselves: our numbers, our aggression, our greed, and our cruelty. Like starlings, we are taking over the world. By Terry Tempest Williams Numbers Aggression Greed Cruelty Starlings

Our family has made its livelihood from the land, digging trenches for hundreds of miles cross-country. You could say this is a real paradox, to destroy the land, yet love it at the same time. This is a typical story of Westerners, how we build community through change. By Terry Tempest Williams Land Digging Crosscountry Family Made

I write to discover. I write to uncover. I write to meet my ghosts ... I write because it is dangerous, a bloody risk, like love, to form the words. By Terry Tempest Williams Write Discover Uncover Ghosts Dangerous

I write because it is dangerous, a bloody risk, like love, to form the words, to say the words, to touch the source, to be touched, to reveal how vulnerable we are, how transient. By Terry Tempest Williams Words Dangerous Risk Love Source

Wilderness holds an original presence giving expression to that which we lack, the losses we long to recover, the absences we seek to fill. Wilderness revives the memory of unity. Through its protection we can find faith in our humanity. By Terry Tempest Williams Wilderness Lack Recover Fill Holds

For far too long we have been seduced into walking a path that did not lead us to ourselves. For far too long we have said yes when we wanted to say no. And for far too long we have said no when we desperately wanted to say yes ... When we don't listen to our intuition, we abandon our souls. And we abandon our souls because we are afraid if we don't, others will abandon us. By Terry Tempest Williams Long Abandon Seduced Walking Path

John Cobb is saying that perhaps we are beginning to see that now as our greed goes completely out of control and everything is seen through money, through corporate power, etc., etc. We know it well. He asked the question, What will be the holocaust that takes us to the next era? - which he describes as "Earthism." By Terry Tempest Williams Etc Cobb John Money Power

The discipline of writing a memoir comes in the editing. This is where I cut, slash, and burn - where my creative mind is transformed into a ruthless one. No word escapes my scrutiny. It is here where I see what boundaries need to be set. By Terry Tempest Williams Editing Discipline Writing Memoir Slash

Pico Iyer describes his writing as "intimate letters to a stranger," and I think that is what the writing process is. It begins with a question, and then you follow this path of exploration. By Terry Tempest Williams Iyer Pico Intimate Stranger Writing

In Utah alone, ten million acres are open for business. Their policy is not about the public or the public's best interest. It is about the oil and gas corporations' best interests. By Terry Tempest Williams Utah Ten Business Million Acres

If you waste water, you die. By Terry Tempest Williams Water Die Waste

We hold the moon in our bellies and fire in our hearts. We bleed We give milk. We are the mothers of first words. These words grow. They are our children. They are our stores and poems. By Terry Tempest Williams Hearts Hold Moon Bellies Fire

There is an unraveling, a great unraveling that I believe is occurring. Not without its pain, not without its frustration. Perhaps the fundamentalism we see within America right now is in response to these changes. We fear change, and so we cling to what is known. By Terry Tempest Williams Unraveling Occurring Great America Pain

I feel that within the Mormon culture there is a tremendous amount of fear - of women's voices, of questioning of authority, and ultimately of our own creativity. By Terry Tempest Williams Mormon Fear Voices Authority Creativity

I worry, that we are a people in a process of great transition and we are forgetting what we are connected to. We are losing our frame of reference. By Terry Tempest Williams Worry People Process Great Transition

She loved the classics and believed in reading out loud. By Terry Tempest Williams Loud Loved Classics Believed Reading

In the desert, success is the understanding of limits. One false move and you die. You can't talk your way out of thirst. Bare skin burns. Face-to-face with a spitting rattlesnake, the only thing you have to negotiate is your escape. There are rules in the desert. Pay attention. Adapt or parish. By Terry Tempest Williams Success Limits Desert Understanding Die

Is this the curse of modernity, to live in a world without judgment, without perspective, no context for understanding or distinguishing what is real and what is imagined, what is manipulated and what is by chance beautiful, what is shadow and what is flesh? By Terry Tempest Williams Modernity Judgment Perspective Imagined Beautiful

Words empower us, move us beyond our suffering, and set us free. By Terry Tempest Williams Words Move Suffering Free Empower

We forget the nature of true power. The power within is abundance. The power without is greed. By Terry Tempest Williams Power Forget Nature True Abundance

Stories have the power to create social change and inspire community. By Terry Tempest Williams Stories Community Power Create Social

I think that the only thing that can bring us into a place of fullness is being out in the land with other. Then we remember where the source of our power lies. By Terry Tempest Williams Thing Bring Place Fullness Land

To withhold words is power. But to share our words with others, openly and honestly, is also power. By Terry Tempest Williams Power Words Withhold Openly Honestly

But, today, the idea of faith returns to me. Faith defies logic and propels us beyond hope because it is not attached to our desires. Faith is the centerpiece of a connected life. It allows us to live by the grace of invisible strands. It is a belief in a wisdom superior to our own. Faith becomes a teacher in the absence of fact. By Terry Tempest Williams Today Faith Idea Returns Desires

I write from the place of inquiry. The first draft is a discovery period to see what I know and what I don't know. My task is simply to follow the words. There are surprises along the way. I just have to get it down. Call it the sculptor's clay. By Terry Tempest Williams Inquiry Write Place Draft Discovery

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES when we go against our instincts? What are the consequences of not speaking out? What are the consequences of guilt, shame, and doubt? By Terry Tempest Williams Consequences Instincts Shame Guilt Doubt

Shards of glass can cut and wound or magnify a vision. Mosaic celebrates brokenness and the beauty of being brought together By Terry Tempest Williams Shards Vision Glass Cut Wound

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. By Terry Tempest Williams Fear Pray Birds Remind Love

I can tell that in Refuge the question that was burning in me was, how do we find refuge in change? Everything around me that was familiar had been turned inside out with my mother's diagnosis of ovarian cancer and with the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge being flooded. By Terry Tempest Williams Refuge Change Question Burning Find

Abundance is rooted in community, not individualism. Abundance is what is before our eyes, but we cannot see when we are blinded by greed. By Terry Tempest Williams Abundance Community Individualism Rooted Eyes

The Eyes of the Future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time. By Terry Tempest Williams Eyes Future Time Back Praying

I believe capitalism will eventually be replaced by a communitarian ethic where the rights and care of all beings will be taken into consideration, not just the greed of a corporate few. By Terry Tempest Williams Consideration Capitalism Eventually Replaced Communitarian

words are much stronger than I am. By Terry Tempest Williams Words Stronger

What other species now require of us is our attention. Otherwise, we are entering a narrative of disappearing intelligences. By Terry Tempest Williams Attention Species Require Intelligences Entering

I care about my brother.I care about wilderness.To care is to lament.My brother is a wilderness, unknowable. By Terry Tempest Williams Unknowable Care Wilderness Brotheri Wildernessto

Home is where we have a history. By Terry Tempest Williams Home History

Not everything is meant for all to hear. By Terry Tempest Williams Hear Meant

Perhaps the wilderness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats, the silent space that says we live only by grace. Wilderness lives by this same grace. Wild mercy is in our hands. By Terry Tempest Williams Grace Heartbeats Wilderness Fear Pause

The danger is in what we codify, commodify, and exploit. By Terry Tempest Williams Commodify Codify Exploit Danger

Whatever artistry may occur within the manuscript, the magic happens for me in the last draft. Whatever I have been resistant to say must finally be said. In the end, I see where my pencil has been leading me. By Terry Tempest Williams Manuscript Draft Artistry Occur Magic

I have found what I need most to heal a broken bond is time together - the very thing I avoid is the thing most desired. By Terry Tempest Williams Thing Desired Found Heal Broken

I think we have powerful role-models among us in the American West. Certainly the Hopis, a timeless civilization that understands sustainability and what that means about living in harmony, in tandem with the natural world. We have much to learn from them, and they will survive us, I feel certain about that. By Terry Tempest Williams West American Powerful Rolemodels Hopis

I remember as a child, my grandmother read to me Silent Spring. It was incomprehensible to me that there could be a world without birdsong. By Terry Tempest Williams Spring Silent Child Remember Grandmother

The time had come to protest with the heart, that to deny one's genealogy with the earth was to commit treason against one's soul. By Terry Tempest Williams Heart Soul Time Protest Deny

I fear silence because it leads me to myself, a self I may not wish to confront. It asks that I listen. And in listening, I am taken to an unknown place. Silence leaves me alone in a place of feeling. It is not necessarily a place of comfort. By Terry Tempest Williams Place Confront Fear Leads Silence

Our national parks are memory palaces where our personal histories reside. By Terry Tempest Williams Reside National Parks Memory Palaces

I think we have to stand up against what is unacceptable, and to push the boundaries and reclaim a more humane way of being in the world, so that we can extend our compassionate intelligence and begin to work with a strengthened will and imagination that can take us into the future. By Terry Tempest Williams Unacceptable World Future Stand Push

I think about capitalism, consumerism, our consumptive nature as a species approaching the 21st century. I certainly don't have the answers. By Terry Tempest Williams Consumerism Century Capitalism Consumptive Nature

We know the quality of another's heart through her voice. By Terry Tempest Williams Voice Quality Heart

I was extremely close with my mother and my grandmothers, we shared our lives - fully, honestly - and it was heightened as each succumbed to cancer. Little was hidden between us. No time. And what was hidden, turned inward. I made a vow to speak. Speak or die. By Terry Tempest Williams Fully Honestly Grandmothers Lives Cancer

Tortoise steps, slow steps, four steps like a tank with a tail dragging in the sand.Tortoise steps, land based, land locked, dusty like the desert tortoise herself, fenced in, a prisoner on her own reservation teaching us the slow art of revolutionary patience. By Terry Tempest Williams Land Steps Tortoise Slow Based

Finding one's voice is a process of finding one's passion. By Terry Tempest Williams Finding Passion Voice Process

I feel like we are at a time of great creativity if we choose to embrace it as such, if we choose to engage the will of our imaginations and imagine another way of being in the world. By Terry Tempest Williams Choose World Feel Time Great

I believe every woman should own at least one pair of red shoes. By Terry Tempest Williams Shoes Woman Pair Red

Her body was rounded like earth. Stories. Breath ... Her eyes have been painted closed. I understand. To tell a story you must travel inward. By Terry Tempest Williams Earth Stories Body Rounded Breath

Perhaps it is not so much what we learn that matters in these moments of awe and wonder, but what we feel in relationship to a world beyond ourselves, even beyond our own species. By Terry Tempest Williams Species Learn Matters Moments Awe

Myths have a way of bringing what is unconscious to the surface and putting a face on what we cannot see. By Terry Tempest Williams Myths Bringing Unconscious Surface Putting

I think we're skating on surfaces. I know it in my own life - and I think that is where this frustration comes in. It's not the place we want to be, but it's the place our society requires that we be. There is no fulfillment there. So we become numbed, we become drugged, we become less than we are. And I think that we know that. By Terry Tempest Williams Surfaces Skating Place Life Frustration

Reading has not only changed my life but saved it. the right picked at the right time - especially the one that scares us, threatens to undermine all we have been told, the one that contains forbidden thoughts - these are the books that become Eve's apples. By Terry Tempest Williams Eve Reading Time Threatens Told

If the desert is holy, it is because it is a forgotten place that allows us to remember the sacred. Perhaps that is why every pilgrimage to the desert is a pilgrimage to the self. There is no place to hide and so we are found. By Terry Tempest Williams Desert Holy Sacred Forgotten Remember

I wonder how it is we have come to this place in our society where art and nature are spoke in terms of what is optional, the pastime and concern of the elite? By Terry Tempest Williams Optional Elite Place Society Art

Every day, I walked. It was not a meditation, but survival, one foot in the front of the other, with my eyes focused down, trying to stay steady. By Terry Tempest Williams Day Walked Meditation Survival Steady

Greed says there is never enough. Abundance says there is more than enough. Greed closes the door behind itself. Abundance opens the door for others. By Terry Tempest Williams Greed Abundance Door Closes Opens

In the desert I often whisper. Junipers are excellent sounding boards. They have been shaped by wing. Rocks seem to care nothing about what I say, yet when I speak to them, they feel porous, capable of receiving my words and taking them in as part of their history of brokenness. By Terry Tempest Williams Whisper Desert Junipers Boards Wing

My grandmother simply shook her head and said, You know what you saw. The bird doesn't need to be counted, and neither do you. By Terry Tempest Williams Grandmother Simply Shook Head Counted

To slow down is to be taken into the soul of things. By Terry Tempest Williams Things Slow Soul

I return to the wilderness to remember what I have forgotten, that the world can be wholesome and beautiful, that the harmony and integrity of ecosystems at peace is a mirror to what we have lost. By Terry Tempest Williams Forgotten Beautiful Lost Return Wilderness

Our species is committing suicide- that is a choice -and in the process, we are causing others pain. By Terry Tempest Williams Suicide Choice Process Pain Species

Wilderness is not a place of privilege, but rather a place of probity, where the evolutionary processes of life are free to continue. By Terry Tempest Williams Place Wilderness Privilege Probity Continue

I know, that Rilke quote - "Beauty is the beginning of terror" - I think about that a lot. It's that realization that we are so small, and yet we are so large in our capacity to relate to the beauty of things. By Terry Tempest Williams Rilke Beauty Quote Terror Lot

We're animals, I think we forget that. I think there is an ancient archetypal memory that still exists within us. If we deny that, what is the cost? So I do think it's what binds us as human beings. By Terry Tempest Williams Animals Forget Cost Ancient Archetypal

The snake who tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit was not the Devil, but her own instinctive nature saying, Honor your hunger and feed yourself. By Terry Tempest Williams Devil Honor Eve Snake Tempted

Sometimes you have to disclaim your country and inhabit another before you can return to your own. By Terry Tempest Williams Disclaim Country Inhabit Return

I appreciate all of the unexpected places, internal and external, that my writing has taken me. By Terry Tempest Williams Places Internal External Unexpected Writing

I grew up in a culture in which it was a sin for a woman to speak out. By Terry Tempest Williams Grew Culture Sin Woman Speak

Here is the world. It is not a safe place, but however frightening and bewildering life may become, we can survive our fears, grab them by the wolf 's tail as Peter did, and make peace with the world. By Terry Tempest Williams World Peter Place Fears Grab

Style is like voice, it grows organically from the truth of one's own life experience. Not in terms of chapters, per se, but in terms of stories. It is the story itself that creates an inherent structure. By Terry Tempest Williams Style Voice Experience Terms Grows

Sorrow has a voice. It is the cold scream of silence turned inward. By Terry Tempest Williams Sorrow Voice Cold Scream Silence

I think wherever we are, we can create an atmosphere of openness and trust, where women and those who feel marginalized feel safe to speak the truth of their lives. By Terry Tempest Williams Trust Lives Feel Create Atmosphere

Faith is not about finding meaning in the world, there may be no such thing faith is the belief in our capacity to create meaningful lives. By Terry Tempest Williams Faith World Lives Finding Meaning

My spiritual life is found inside the heart of the wild. By Terry Tempest Williams Wild Spiritual Life Found Inside

Grief dares us to love once more. By Terry Tempest Williams Grief Dares Love

CONVERSATION is the vehicle for change. By Terry Tempest Williams Conversation Change Vehicle

The unexpected action of deep listening can create a space of transformation capable of shattering complacency and despair. By Terry Tempest Williams Despair Unexpected Action Deep Listening

I believe that spiritual resistance the ability to stand firm at the center of our convictions when everything around us asks us to concede, that our capacity to face the harsh measures of a life, comes from the deep quiet of listening to the land, the river the rocks. There is a resonance of humility that has evolved with the earth. It is the best retrieved in solitude amidst the stillness of days in the desert. By Terry Tempest Williams Concede Life Land Rocks Spiritual

Did I have the courage to forge a path By Terry Tempest Williams Path Courage Forge

That is the wonderful ecological mind that Gregory Bateson talks about - the patterns that connect, the stories that inform and inspire us and teach us what is possible By Terry Tempest Williams Gregory Bateson Connect Wonderful Ecological

This is wilderness, to walk in silence. This is wilderness, to calm the mind.This is wilderness, my return to composure. By Terry Tempest Williams Wilderness Silence Walk Composure Calm

memory is the only way home. By Terry Tempest Williams Memory Home

The mind creates those things that exist. By Terry Tempest Williams Exist Mind Creates Things

The only book worth writing is the book that threatens to kill you. By Terry Tempest Williams Book Worth Writing Threatens Kill

I think that it's too much to take on the world. It's too much to take on Los Angeles. All I can do is to go back home to the canyon where we live and ask the kinds of questions that can make a difference in our neighborhoods. By Terry Tempest Williams World Angeles Los Neighborhoods Back

The question I'm constantly asking myself is: what are we afraid of? I think it's important for us to follow that line of fear, because that is ultimately our line of growth. By Terry Tempest Williams Question Constantly Afraid Line Fear

It was fascinating listening to this wonderful biologist, Sarah Allen Miller, speak of her relationship to these beings for 20 years. By Terry Tempest Williams Years Sarah Miller Allen Biologist

We are wearing coats of trust. When one tells a story this is what happens. By Terry Tempest Williams Trust Wearing Coats Story

Women piece together their lives from the scraps left over for them. By Terry Tempest Williams Women Piece Lives Scraps Left

There is no one true church, no one chosen people. By Terry Tempest Williams Church People True Chosen

No separation between the spiritual and the physical. It is all one. By Terry Tempest Williams Physical Separation Spiritual

We mask our needs as the needs of others. By Terry Tempest Williams Mask

Mythmaking is the evolutionary enterprise of translating truths. By Terry Tempest Williams Mythmaking Truths Evolutionary Enterprise Translating

When one of us says, "Look, there's nothing out there," what we are really saying is, "I cannot see. By Terry Tempest Williams

All we have is time. By Terry Tempest Williams Time

To hear something asks very little of us. To listen places our entire being on notice. By Terry Tempest Williams Hear Notice Listen Places Entire

I think the whole idea of home is central to who we are as human beings. By Terry Tempest Williams Idea Home Central Human

This is a landscape that should not be sold. By Terry Tempest Williams Sold Landscape

We can try to kill all that is native, string it up by its hind legs for all to see, but spirit howls and wildness endures. By Terry Tempest Williams Native String Endures Kill Hind

My body is a compass - and it does not lie. By Terry Tempest Williams Compass Lie Body

Hope radiates outward from the center of our concerns. Hope dares us to stare the miraculous in the eye and have the courage not to look away. By Terry Tempest Williams Hope Concerns Radiates Outward Center

Storytelling is the oldest form of education. By Terry Tempest Williams Storytelling Education Oldest Form

When one woman doesn't speak, other women get hurt. By Terry Tempest Williams Speak Hurt Woman Women

To be numb to the world is another form of suicide. By Terry Tempest Williams Suicide Numb World Form

When I said, "I am my mother, but I'm not," I was saying my path would be my own. By Terry Tempest Williams Mother Path

There are times we have to put our body on the line for what we believe, for the injustices we see even within our own families. By Terry Tempest Williams Families Times Put Body Line

To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from. By Terry Tempest Williams Complete Wildness Human Reminds Connected

The Japanese have a word - aware - which, in my understanding is, again, that full range - both the joy and the sorrow of our life. One does not exist without the other. And I really feel that. By Terry Tempest Williams Aware Japanese Word Range Life

Rituals are the formulas by which harmony is restored. By Terry Tempest Williams Rituals Restored Formulas Harmony

I love the ordered mind of history because it takes us out of the chaos, momentarily, and says, "Ah, so this is the story we are engaged in." By Terry Tempest Williams Momentarily Chaos Love Ordered Mind

The pain that we feel when we are making love with someone is that we know it will end. It's that paradoxical response of joy and suffering. By Terry Tempest Williams End Pain Feel Making Love

How do we remain faithful to our own spiritual imagination and not betray what we know in our own bodies? The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy. By Terry Tempest Williams Holy Bodies Remain Faithful Spiritual

I believe that when we are fully present, we not only live well, we live well for others. By Terry Tempest Williams Live Present Fully

Dare to be burned by the heat of our own ambitious hearts. By Terry Tempest Williams Dare Hearts Burned Heat Ambitious

Word by word, the language of women so often begins with a whisper. By Terry Tempest Williams Whisper Word Language Women Begins

A pencil is a wand and a weapon. Be careful. Protect yourself. It can be glorious. By Terry Tempest Williams Weapon Pencil Wand Careful Protect

Wilderness is an antidote to the war within ourselves. By Terry Tempest Williams Wilderness Antidote War

People talk about medium. What is your medium? My medium as a writer has been dirt, clay, sandwhat I could touch, hold, stand on, and stand forEarth. My medium has been Earth. Earth in correspondence with my mind. By Terry Tempest Williams Medium People Talk Earth Stand

I don't set boundaries for myself when I am writing; if I did, I would be paralyzed from the start, unable to write a word on the page. By Terry Tempest Williams Writing Start Unable Page Set

And all your Faithless doubts Will not destroy The rising spring In me. By Terry Tempest Williams Faithless Doubts Destroy Rising Spring

I think that water is a tremendous organizing principle. By Terry Tempest Williams Principle Water Tremendous Organizing

What I mean by "An Unspoken Hunger." It's a hunger that cannot be quelled by material things. It's a hunger that cannot be quelled by the constant denial. By Terry Tempest Williams Unspoken Hunger Quelled Things Denial

It is where we embrace our questions ... Can we listen with our whole beings, not just our minds, and offer our attention rather than our opinions? By Terry Tempest Williams Questions Embrace Minds Opinions Listen

As a writer, I have learned that each time I pick up my pencil I betray someone. By Terry Tempest Williams Writer Learned Time Pick Pencil

I think I must be worried all the time - maybe that is the other side of joy, you know, holding that line of the full range of emotions. By Terry Tempest Williams Time Joy Holding Emotions Worried

Hope is not attached to outcomes but is a state of mind. By Terry Tempest Williams Hope Mind Attached Outcomes State

She is reading Zen, Krishnamurti, and Jung, asking herself questions she has never had the courage to explore. Suddenly, the shackles which have bound her are beginning to snap, as personal revelation replaces orthodoxy. By Terry Tempest Williams Krishnamurti Zen Jung Explore Suddenly

Can you be inside and outside at the same time?I think this is where I live.I think this is where most women live.I know this is where writers live.Inside to write. Outside to glean. By Terry Tempest Williams Livei Time Write Inside Women

Respect is primary. By Terry Tempest Williams Respect Primary

I believe a politics of place emerges where we are deeply accountable to our communities, to our neighborhoods, to our home. By Terry Tempest Williams Communities Neighborhoods Home Politics Place

Democracy is an insecure landscape. By Terry Tempest Williams Democracy Landscape Insecure

We're human, this is our world, and I think we learn that that which is most personal is most general. And so, in a sense, we disappear into this larger world. By Terry Tempest Williams World Human General Learn Personal

My voice is born repeatedly in the fields of uncertainty. By Terry Tempest Williams Uncertainty Voice Born Repeatedly Fields

I write as a witness to what I have seen. By Terry Tempest Williams Write Witness

The scales of equilibrium can be found in wilderness/ By Terry Tempest Williams Wilderness Scales Equilibrium Found

Devil spelled backward is Lived. By Terry Tempest Williams Lived Devil Spelled Backward

Roland Barthes says, That which cannot be named is a disturbance. By Terry Tempest Williams Barthes Roland Disturbance Named

Once you know that you have a voice," Louis said, "it's no longer the voice that matters, but what is behind the voice. By Terry Tempest Williams Louis Voice Matters Longer