The name of this blog, Rainbow Juice, is intentional.
The rainbow signifies unity from diversity. It is holistic. The arch suggests the idea of looking at the over-arching concepts: the big picture. To create a rainbow requires air, fire (the sun) and water (raindrops) and us to see it from the earth.
Juice suggests an extract; hence rainbow juice is extracting the elements from the rainbow, translating them and making them accessible to us. Juice also refreshes us and here it symbolises our nutritional quest for understanding, compassion and enlightenment.

Friday 22 February 2013

Of Earthquakes and Earthquotes

Today (22 February 2013) is the second anniversary of a massive earthquake hitting the city of Christchurch, New Zealand.  I was living there at the time.

We live on a living, breathing, moving planet.  It moves beneath us, with earthquakes and volcanoes being the surface manifestation.  It moves around us, with tornadoes and floods being the manifestation.

Yes, the earth may make our lives difficult or even traumatic.  But it is the earth that sustains us, gives us the ability to live.  We must similarly sustain the earth. 

So today, in honour of the Earth I wish to offer some Earthquotes:
“Our task must be to free ourselves … by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it’s beauty.” – Albert Einstein

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” – Dolly Parton

“We are all visitors to this time, this place.  We are just passing through.  Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home.” – Australian Aboriginal Proverb

“The major problems of the world are the result of the difference between the way nature works and the way people think.” – Gregory Bateson

“To see the world in a grain of sand, And heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour.” – William Blake

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It’s not.” – Dr Seuss

“Humans did not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it.  Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” – Chief Seattle
As I remember a day on which the earth moved terribly, we can also reflect on what moves us and what we can do.  Events around us can paralyse us so that we can think of nothing to do, or the enormity of the task can perplex us so that we end up doing nothing.  Thinking of those impasses leaves me with one more quote:
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase.  Just take the first step.” – unknown
In memory of 181 people who died in the Christchurch earthquake, 22 February 2011.

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