Golden Threads - Christine Burton, Her Words


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You asked me why I say I've had such a wonderful life; I am sure that not in any other segment, any time in the history of the human race, has a culture changed as much as it has in my lifetime. It's not a revolution, it's an explosion! And it's just wonderful because unless you have these explosions, you're going to live in a rut, and the second you stop living and growing is when you start to die.

Any time you get to thinking you're the center of the universe, just look at a flower, and realize that the flower did not evolve for you; it evolved for insects. That's where we are in the web of life.

I was brought up that, well it's suspect, if you have pleasure... it's frivolous or something, you know. But pleasure itself is political - and we should seek it. We should keep our five senses alive and try to enjoy everything we do.

I'm glad I'm old. I'm glad I've lived this long to get my act together so that I can open up, see friendship and enjoy friends. I didn't start to really live until I was eighty.

I can't hike the Appalachian trail or ride a bicycle forty miles a day anymore. I don't have that physical vitality. But it seems I have spiritual vitality, I can just feel it... As I've become older I've become more mature, I've become more myself and I think I'm sexier now than I was then. I'm more aware of it, and it's more important in my life.

Upon holding a fallen bird, cupped between her hands. Its little head was out, I could just see its head. So I softened my voice, and I talked to it, I said, "You're such a beautiful bird. Ooh, and you have such pretty eyes. I love you. You are just lovely." And while I'm saying this, very slowly... I lifted my hand out of the way. So here is this lovely wild creature, sitting in the palm of my hand. A minute went by, and pretty soon I saw a little head twist a bit and look at me quizzically. I think she was thinking, "I wonder if I'm free?" And finally she decided she was, and she just flew away. It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. It made me realize we're not free unless we know we're free. Now this bird had been free for at least a whole minute, but didn't know it - so it couldn't fly; we can't fly unless we know we are free.