Quotes About Understanding

alone." Native scholar Greg Cajete has written that in indigenous ways of knowing, we understand a thing only when we understand it with all four aspects of our being: mind, body, emotion, and spirit. I

Losing their names is a step in losing respect. Knowing their names is the first step in regaining our connection.

To me, an experiment is a kind of conversation with plants: I have a question for them, but since we don't speak the same language, I can't ask them directly and they won't answer verbally. But plants can be eloquent in their physical responses and behaviors. Plants answer questions by the way they live, by their responses to change; you just need to learn how to ask.

What if you were a teacher but had no voice to speak your knowledge? What if you had no language at all and yet there was something you needed to say? Wouldn't you dance it? Wouldn't you act it out? Wouldn't your every movement tell the story? In time you would be so eloquent that just to gaze upon you would reveal it all. And so it is with these silent green lives.

The plants can tell us her story; we need to learn to listen.

Creation stories offer a glimpse into the worldview of a people, of how they understand themselves, their place in the world, and the ideals to which they aspire. Likewise, the collective fears and deepest values of a people are also seen in the visage of the monsters they create.

To be native to a place we must learn to speak its language. Listening in wild places, we are audience to conversations in a language not our own. I think now that it was a longing to comprehend this language I hear in the woods that led me to science, to learn over the years to speak fluent botany.

Yes, I have learned the names of all the bushes, but I have yet to learn their songs.

Of course you should write about it. It's supposed to be shared, otherwise how can it work? We've been waiting five hundred years for people to listen. If they'd understood the Thanksgiving

When I stare too long at the world with science eyes, I see an afterimage of traditional knowledge. Might science and traditional knowledge be purple and yellow to one another, might they be goldenrod and asters? We see the world more fully when we use both.

In my room, in the dark, I understood what I never had before, what no one else seemed to. I understood how a boy could go into the woods with a bullet and a gun and not come out. That there was no conspiracy, no evil influences or secret rituals; that sometimes there was only pain and the need to make it stop.

You could love something and still understand it had ruined your life.

Not that my arms are getting tired or anything, but... how much longer is the hugging phase going to last?

They say our mothers really know how to push our buttons–because they installed them.

Can't any of us stand up to those women?" "Nope," said at least three men in unison.

A little while later Jack walked into the kitchen at the bar and saw Preacher scowl his greeting. Bravely, Jack walked up to the counter. "Hey, man," he said. "You were right, I was wrong, and I'd like us to get back on the same team." "You sure this team of mine isn't too much trouble for little you?" Preacher asked. "Okay, you about done? Because this really hurts and I'm trying not to deck you right now.

At some point he realized that he knew how she felt—once you know how much you love someone, no one else would do.

Are you all right to drive without me talking you home?" He laughed a little. "You know what? I can't remember doing this before. Talking to a woman for over an hour on the phone." "You can't possibly expect me to believe that," she said. "I know you've had a million women!" "Not like you, Jilly. I was always looking for women who would take me to bed. It never occurred to me to look for a woman who would take me to heart.

But what if you don't like Chico?" she asked him, her brow furrowed. "Will you be there? Because if that's where you want to be, I'll find plenty to like.

Thanks a lot. You could have cut the girl some slack. We haven't had anything pretty to look at around here since Bradley's old golder retriever died died last fall.

But, Marcie had reminded herself, I don't know the weight of anyone else's burdens—only my own. She didn't judge. She didn't feel smart or strong enough to judge.

God understands everything. And even He made a mistake or two. Look at the size of avocado seeds - way too big. And pomegranates? Too many seeds. What a waist of fruit!

What we wish other people would do has nothing to do with us. That's not moral fiber, that's being judgmental and unforgiving." "I've never been judgmental or unforgiving a day in my life," Maureen protested. "Know

here is something you should probably know about women without being told. We don't want to have to tell a man we need to be wanted. We'd really like that to come naturally. We'd like a man to pursue us because he wants us, not because he's out of options.