Quotes from Kim Heacox

We are not here to exist; we are here to live, to face death and stare it down. We are here to trust in God and to embrace this world in all its quiet and violent beauty, to break down the walls of our own prejudices and believe in something greater than ourselves. We are here to paddle into our worst fears and come out the other side to discover glaciers, to meet them face-to-face, and to celebrate a sense of wonder and God's plan that we find only in Nature.

Keb would never forget how Gracie turned to the wall and trembled, how he felt nailed to the chair, thinking: we build a perfect picture of what we want our children to be. And when that picture falls and shatters, what do we do? His sister Dot once told him: we get on our hands and knees and put the pieces back together, and call it parenting.

Wilderness areas are places to explore deeply yet lightly; to exercise freedom but also restraint, to manage but also leave alone, to bring us face-to-face with a dilemma in our democracy. How do we convince people to save something they may never see, touch, or hear? A starving man can't eat his illusions, let alone his principles.

Nature wasn't for us to rise above. It was for us to sink into; to sleep upon and go bootless, and in silent protest to walk the finest rugs and fanciest tile and leave our naked, muddy footprints as the signatures of new beginnings.

The more we are removed from nature, the more we are denied our birthright to play in forests, climb mountains, follow streams, and fall in love with meadows, to become creative, self-actualized, deeply intuitive.

Do you work a job that slowly kills you so you can afford health coverage to pay medical expenses? Or do you live right with the earth and make your own way, keep things simple, and take care of yourself?

You have to suffer and come out the other side, find compassion in the emptiness. Respond by not filling it up. It's no easy thing. It's not what we build, Uncle Austin used to say. It's what we leave alone that makes us who we are. Look around. We cannot improve this place. We can only honor it by receiving its bounty with wisdom and thanks.

Where was our language of reverence? Of sacredness? Every year in America we add hundreds of words to our dictionaries that describe our infatuation with pop culture and technology, but none that describe a deepening regard for the natural world.

For Muir, Emerson and Thoreau were insufficiently wild; they thought from the head down, not feet up.

Long ago travel was full of risk and hard work. The English noun "travel" was born from the word travail, which came (by way of France) from the Latin tripalium, meaning a three-staked instrument of torture. To travel was to struggle against steep odds and have no guarantees of success. It required a lot of planning and expense, and great physical endurance.

Travel this country and you move through more than geography; you move through time.

Death is the general condition. Life is the exception: a beautiful, love-filled exception.

God must have had a sense of humor to create us.

Every native culture in North America has myths and legends about the bear, many of them tributes to wisdom and strength. "The bear is good to talk with," say the Yupik Eskimos. "If the bear wanted to speak with you, all it needed to do was remove its mask and there beneath was a human.

Amid all this there's plenty of talk about saving the earth. I'll tell you, the earth has taken some hard hits in the past. It'll survive. What needs saving, I believe, is the human race and our ability to restrain ourselves, if we have such a thing. What needs saving is the rich tapestry of life around us that we take for granted. What needs saving—perhaps even found to begin with—is the intrinsic value of nature beyond any human utility.

Every year in America we add hundreds of words to our dictionaries that describe our infatuation with pop culture and technology, but none that describe a deepening regard for the natural world.

We are not human beings on a spiritual journey," Milo told him. "We are spiritual beings on a human journey, born into our lives for one reason only: to seek the road that makes death a fulfillment.

Hush your fears, my boy, we will get across safe, though it is not going to be easy. No right way is easy in this rough world. We must risk our lives in order to save them.

Live now. Every day with a friend is a gift. Nothing lasts forever. Even mountains wash to the sea. She

There are two tragedies in life: Not getting what you want, and getting it.

If words were water he could turn turbines.

If an ocean can be vanquished, Folsom asked, is any place safe?

How is it that young people most need our love when they least deserve it?

Uncle Austin used to say that all of our joy and suffering comes from the same single sacred utterance; that we live by being wounded and healed and wounded again, and healed, one day at a time.