Yosemite Park is a place of rest, a refuge from the roar and dust and weary, nervous, wasting work of the lowlands, in which one gains the advantages of both solitude and society. Nowhere will you find more company of a soothing peace-be- still kind. Your animal fellow-beings, so seldom regarded in civilization, and every rock-brow and mountain, stream, and lake, and every plant soon come to be regarded as brothers; even one learns to like the storms and clouds and tireless winds. This one noble park is big enough and rich enough for a whole life of study and aesthetic enjoyment. It is good for everybody, no matter how benumbed with care, encrusted with a mail of business habits like a tree with bark. None can escape its charms. Its natural beauty cleans and warms like a fire, and you will be willing to stay forever in one place like a tree.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Yosemite offers rest and peace where natural beauty and animal presence treat visitors like brothers, healing even the most burdened.
- In plain terms
- Yosemite provides peace and healing through nature and solitude.
- What can you take from it?
- Seek natural refuge to heal from life burdens.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Where do you find true rest?
- How does nature treat you as family?
Another view
Not everyone can access or afford visits to such remote parks.
More from John Muir
Winds are advertisements of all they touch, however much or little we may be able to read them; telling their wanderings ever by their accents alone.
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