“For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.”     ~James Baldwin

 

“We are here to bring to consciousness the beauty and power that are around us and to praise the people who are here with us.” ~Annie Dillard

 

“We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph.”     ~Elie Wiesel

 

“When you are present you can sense the spirit – the one consciousness in every creature – and love it as yourself.”    ~Eckhart Tolle

 

“The total number of minds in the universe is one. In fact, consciousness is a singularity, phasing within all beings.” ~Erwin Schrödinger

 

“People normally cut reality into compartments, and so are unable to see the interdependence of all phenomena. To see one in all and all in one is to break through the great barrier which narrows one’s perception of reality.”    ~Thich Nhat Hanh

 

“I have a mind to confuse things, unite them, make them new-born, mix them up, undress them, until all light in the world has the oneness of the ocean, a generous, vast wholeness, a crackling, living fragrance.”     ~Pablo Neruda

 

“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.”   ~Lucille Clifton

 

“The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.”    ~Rabindranath Tagore

 

“When all the ordinary divides and patterns are shattered, people step up to become their brothers’ keepers. And that purposefulness and connectedness bring joy even amidst death, chaos, fear, and loss.”     ~Rebecca Solnit

 

All photographs by Adrienne Christian.