“This is what you shall do;

Love the earth and sun and the

animals, despise riches, give alms

to every one that asks, stand up

for the stupid and crazy, devote

your income and labor to others,

hate tyrants, argue not

concerning God, have patience

and indulgence toward the

people, take off your hat to

nothing known or unknown or to

any man or number of men, go

freely with powerful uneducated

persons and with the young and

with the mothers of families,

read these leaves in the open air

every season of every year of

your life, re-examine all you

have been told at school or

church or in any book, dismiss

whatever insults your own soul,

and your very flesh shall be a

great poem and have the richest

fluency not only in its words but

in the silent lines of its lips and

face and between the lashes of

your eyes and in every motion

and joint of your body.”

Walt Whitman - Preface to

‘Leaves of Grass,' 1855

Geert Weggen Photography,

“This is what you shall do;

Love the earth and sun and the

animals, despise riches, give alms

to every one that asks, stand up

for the stupid and crazy, devote

your income and labor to others,

hate tyrants, argue not

concerning God, have patience

and indulgence toward the

people, take off your hat to

nothing known or unknown or to

any man or number of men, go

freely with powerful uneducated

persons and with the young and

with the mothers of families,

read these leaves in the open air

every season of every year of

your life, re-examine all you

have been told at school or

church or in any book, dismiss

whatever insults your own soul,

and your very flesh shall be a

great poem and have the richest

fluency not only in its words but

in the silent lines of its lips and

face and between the lashes of

your eyes and in every motion

and joint of your body.”

Walt Whitman - Preface to

‘Leaves of Grass,' 1855 #Whitman #transcendentalism #perennialwisdom #nature