Don't just live the length of your life - live the width of it as well. Diane Ackerman More Quotes by Diane Ackerman More Quotes From Diane Ackerman When I go biking, I am mentally far far away from civilization. The world is breaking someone else's heart. Diane Ackerman heart civilization world In rare moments of deep play, we can lay aside our sense of self, shed time's continuum, ignore pain, and sit quietly in the absolute present, watching the world's ordinary miracles. No mind or heart hobbles. No analyzing or explaining. No questing for logic. No promises. No goals. No relationships. No worry. One is completely open to whatever drama may unfold. Diane Ackerman pain fun drama Look at your feet. You are standing in the sky. When we think of the sky, we tend to look up, but the sky actually begins at the earth. Diane Ackerman stars clouds thinking One can live at a low flame. Most people do. For some, life is an exercise in moderation (best china saved for special occasions), but given something like death, what does it matter if one looks foolish now and then, or tries too hard, or cares too Diane Ackerman flames exercise people I think if you look at any facet of nature in enough detail, you find it fascinating. How could you not? The universe is so full of marvels. Here's an example -- rain, the shape of rain. I was minding my own business, working on my book, looking out the window, and it was raining and I was noticing that the raindrops were falling in that classic round-looking way, and I thought, 'I wonder if raindrops really are round?' So I started researching it a little, and I discovered that raindrops change shape 300 times a second. Diane Ackerman rain book fall Touch seems to be as essential as sunlight. Diane Ackerman sunlight essentials love Words are small shapes in the gorgeous chaos of the world. Diane Ackerman chaos shapes world As a species, we've somehow survived large and small ice ages, genetic bottlenecks, plagues, world wars and all manner of natural disasters, but I sometimes wonder if we'll survive our own ingenuity. Diane Ackerman ice age war I like handling newborn animals. Fallen into life from an unmappable world, they are the ultimate immigrants, full of wonder and confusion. Diane Ackerman confusion animal world To begin to understand the gorgeous fever that is consciousness, we must try to understand the senses and what they can tell us about the ravishing world we have the privilege to inhabit. Diane Ackerman fever trying world A kiss is like singing into someone's mouth. Diane Ackerman best-love singing kissing Wonder is a bulky emotion. When you let it fill your heart and mind, there isn't room for anxiety, distress or anything else. Diane Ackerman anxiety mind heart Poetry is an act of distillation. It takes contingency samples, is selective. It telescopes time. It focuses what most often floods past us in a polite blur. Diane Ackerman telescopes poetry past Smell brings to mind... a family dinner of pot roast and sweet potatoes during a myrtle-mad August in a Midwestern town. Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines hidden under the weedy mass of years. Diane Ackerman senior sweet memories Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth. Diane Ackerman smell vision memories What an odd, ruminating, noisy, self-interrupting conversation we conduct with ourselves from birth to death. Diane Ackerman birth odd self Nature neither gives nor expects mercy. Diane Ackerman nature mercy giving Tranquillity hides in small spaces, and when found needs to be treasured, because you know it's a phantom that will slip away again. Diane Ackerman phantoms space needs The only and absolute perfect union of two is when a baby hangs suspended in its mother's womb, like a tiny madman in a padded cell, attached to her, feeling her blood and hormones, and moods play through its body, feeling her feelings. Diane Ackerman cells mother baby Like love, travel makes you innocent again. Diane Ackerman like-love innocent
