Featherfin Family Services
Words to Inspire
on nature
Maria Montessori
“Let the children be free; encourage them;
let them run outside when it is raining;
let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water;
and when the grass of the meadows is wet with dew,
let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet;
let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath its shade;
let them shout and laugh when the sun wakes them in the morning.”
Terry Krautwurst
“Our challenge isn’t so much to teach children about the natural world, but to find ways to sustain the instinctive connections they already carry.”
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Nicolette Sowder
“Children grow up hearing how broken the environment is, how broken beyond repair. Plant strawberries together, make wild medicines, paint the sunrise. Show them proof that for every act of destruction, they can sow a seed, however small, of beauty.”
David Sobel
“If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, then let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it. Perhaps this is what Thoreau had in mind when he said, “the more slowly trees grow at first, the sounder they are at the core, and I think the same is true of human beings.”
on play
Peter Gray
"The drive to play freely is a basic, biological drive. Lack of free play may not kill the physical body, as would lack of air, food, or water, but it kills the spirit and stunts mental growth. ”
Hayao Miyazaki
"We shouldn’t stick too close to everyday reality but give room to the reality of the heart, of the mind, and of the imagination. Those things can help us in life. ”
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Gretchen Owocki
"As astronauts and space travelers children puzzle over the future; as dinosaurs and princesses they unearth the past. As weather reporters and restaurant workers they make sense of reality; as monsters and gremlins they make sense of the unreal. ”
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Susan Linn
"Play is the foundation of learning, creativity, self-expression, and constructive problem-solving. It’s how children wrestle with life to make it meaningful. ”
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on connection
Jim Butcher
“There’s nothing that makes you more insane than family. Or more happy, or more exasperated, or more secure.”
Dorothy Day
"We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community."
Mother Theresa
“What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”
Ram Dass
"Treat everyone you meet as if they are God in drag."