Journey to Eloheh Quotes

“This principle of reciprocity--a give-and-take in a relationship of balance--is not just some transaction done to advance one's own aims. Traditionally, Native Americans see reciprocity as a natural law of the universe and as crucial for humans to maintain harmony.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“Hoarding means both depleting natural resources and creating a storage problem. Neither does it make sense to hoard food away from the needs of others.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“As they made their way forward, his grandfather reminded him to keep looking back. If he did not recognize where he had been, his grandfather said, he would never find his way out of those woods.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“After more than 530 years of the Western worldview in America, we think it is fair to call the Western worldview a failed experiment. Western civilization has done Turtle Island and the world little good, and it has caused damage beyond compare.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“Remind yourself every day that all things are connected, that all people and things are your relatives.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“But there is hope. The United Nations did a study showing that small farms can feed the world. Small farms are more adaptable. They are less costly, because they don't need extremely expensive machinery, and less environmentally damaging, because they don't need to spray chemicals. And they provide greater local economic opportunities than large industrial farms do. Small farms have been proven to produce higher yields per acre and more nutrient-dense foods.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“Such a split--a deadly one, as it turns out, for Native Americans--was reinforced through what is called binary thinking. In binary thinking, Puritans and others operating from that worldview judged everything to be either right or wrong, with no middle ground... This type of absolutism makes it difficult for Western thinkers to hold two seemingly incompatible things in tension without having to find resolution.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“Western definitions of happiness--and Western maps of how you get there--may even lead you away from well-being.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being