Something mysteriously formed
Born before heaven and earth,
In silence and void
Standing alone and unchanging,
Ever present and in motion.
Perhaps it is the mother of ten thousand things.
I do not know its name.
Call it Tao.
For lack of a better word, I call it great.
--The Tao
Long before my ancestors came to this land, our native American ancestors treasured it. They honored its welfare and rejoiced in its beauty. They lived as one with their surroundings; the woodlands felt their generations flow. Only what was needed was taken and with such humble lives, the need was small. The reward for such a thing is tranquility, and a life richly full. There is wisdom in such living.
Roaming in thought over the Universe,
I saw the little that is Good,
steadily hastening towards immortality, And the vast all
that is call'd Evil, I saw hastening to merge itself
and become lost and dead.
-Whitman