When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.
-John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra,1911
John Muir wrote down his thoughts and feelings. When others read these words it changed their view of the world.
The natural world was not a dangerous and fearful place to be conquered and subdued. It was beautiful in its wildness and worth protecting and conserving. Not just for plundering.
In his quote about individuals and their place in the universe, he talks about our place in the universe. Although we may seem independent and separate, we are connected invisibly by a thousand cords that cannot be broken.
Our very being, flesh and bone, comes from the air, water and food we consume. Our thoughts and feelings come from the sun, air, dirt, rocks, plants and animals. If you take a fish from the river or the sea it cannot remain being a fish. We cannot exist without the dirt, bugs and slime we stand on and rise above.
Our thoughts and actions are not ours at all. They are but variations, combinations and derivatives of things we heard, read or were taught. These inputs came from others who spoke, wrote or taught to us. And those speech, writings and teachings came from still others.
From isolation and contemplation, we find connectedness. A connectedness as invisible as it is unbreakable.