When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken to everything else in the universe.

"Most people are ON the world, not IN it - have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them - undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate . . . [But] when we try to pick out anything by itself, we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken to everything in the universe. One fancies a heart like our own must be beating in every crystal and cell . . ."

The Contemplative John Muir

Photo: Bushes of rose hips, with Stone's Peak and surrounding mountains in the background; Moraine Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; April 21, 2014