Boyd Varty Quotes

don’t try to be someone, rather find the thing that is so engaging that it makes you forget yourself.

I hear Joseph Campbell: “People are not looking for the meaning of life, they are looking for the feeling of being alive.

Innocence is really just presence at its simplest.

Wherever you are, with whatever means you have, if you reclaim a piece of land for nature, your world will grow kinder, more benevolent. Create havens - for animals, for other people, for yourself - and let this reflect into the world. Fight for space in your own backyard, in an acre or a flowerpot or simply an embrace of the longing for company that lingers in your wilting heart. If you take this one step toward them, no matter where you are, the elephants will come to you.

Joseph Campbell said, “If you can see your whole life’s path laid out then it’s not your life’s path.” In the bush and in life, we don’t get trails fully laid out. We get tremendous unknowns and, if we are lucky, first tracks. Then next first tracks.

I was never interested in monuments or official sights; I was always drawn to the secret energy of a place contained in its teahouses or on the street, shorelines, and forests. I wanted to spend the whole day watching a man sell vegetables so I could know a bit of his life.

We have forgotten that life holds a unique story for us all. A thread made up of faint signs that lead to the manifestation of something unique. What the native people call “your medicine way.” Something that only you can give to the world.

Before that day, I had always thought that I needed to be somebody in the world. That rhino and the path he walked told me something different: don’t try to be someone, rather find the thing that is so engaging that it makes you forget yourself.

In his presence the word “mastery” comes to mind. To me a master is anyone who can be themselves in any situation. Renias lives this definition. He has achieved one of the hardest things to achieve in our time: a freedom from judgment about how and who he should be.

We lose ourselves in “shoulds”… No wild animal has ever participated in a should.

There is a place inside you that is as healthy as the day

Accept that losing the track is part of tracking. Go back to the last clear track. There is information there. Walk up ahead checking any open terrain and bare ground. Open your focus. Any place you don’t find a track is not wasted, but part of refining where to look. Flow for a while on your best guess, alert, listening, noticing.

That’s how mentors should be made: not through titles or words but through actions. On the ground, in the face of a leopard, one feels acutely alone. To be guided in a moment like that, with such extreme stakes, creates a bond that is rare in modern life.

But a great tracker can ask: How do you know you love something? How do you feel when you are fully expressing yourself? Learn that feeling and then start looking, not for the thing, but for the feeling. It’s there if you can tune yourself to it, if you can learn to see how the field of life is always speaking to you.

Being depressed is one thing when your life can be seen by outsiders as justifiably hard, but it is a whole different shameful story when you have everything and still feel like you can't bear to get out of bed in the morning. People can't really be sympathetic to you when they can begin to fathom what you could be so upset about.

most true acts of heroism—reflections of one’s deepest nature—remain unknown to the hero.

Know your truth, stick to the process, and be free of the outcome.

everything is a gift. The things that test you can move you into a new state.

True giving gives in every direction.

I would love my older self to not be in the story of how it should have been, but to live in deep acceptance of how it is.

Lions aren't used to other creatures staring them down. It's a good tactic for life too; even if you're terrified inside, stare it in the eye.

Her unconditional love and joyfulness had reminded us that there was still good in the world. From a spiritual perspective, dogs get it so right (except for the annoying yappers, which get nothing right).

Coming from the South African bushveld, I felt pretty certain life did not need a coach. The unbroken stream of life that animates all things is supremely intelligent, and nothing in the wild needs a coach to help it discover what it truly is. If we had lost our way in the modern world—our sense of value, direction, and belonging—it was because we had lost contact with something more instinctual, more innate. All of this shuddered on its mooring in my own subconscious as the roar cut the night.

I think of all the people I have spoken to who have said, “When I know exactly what the next thing is, I will make a move.” I think of all the people whom I have taught to track who froze when they lost the track, wanting to be certain of the right path forward before they would move. Trackers try things. The tracker on a lost track enters a process of rediscovery that is fluid. He relies on a process of elimination, inquiry, confirmation; a process of discovery and feedback. He enters a ritual of focused attention. As paradoxical as it sounds, going down a path and not finding a track is part of finding the track. Alex and Renias call this “the path of not here.” No action is considered a waste, and the key is to keep moving, readjusting, welcoming feedback. The path of not here is part of the path of here.

I thought of all the people I had met who wanted a full vision for a new life and then to move from where they were straight into it. I thought of all the people who had told me that when they knew exactly what they wanted to do, they would leave the soul-destroying thing that they were currently involved with. Obsessed with perfection and doing it right, we want to go straight to the “lion.” We don’t realize the significance of the path of first tracks and how to be invested in a discovery rather than an outcome.

I’ve learned that nothing is worth doing if it cannot be done from a place of deep peace. If we want to restore the planet, we must first restore ourselves. I believe that you find your way to your right life, your mission, the same way you find an animal. First, quiet your heart and be still. Then find the fresh track and be willing to follow it. You don’t need to see the whole picture; you only need to see where to take the next step. Life isn’t about staying on track; it’s about constantly rediscovering the track.

I’ve always felt that spiritual experience is dropping the illusion that we’re not. Growing up at Londolozi nourished that sense in me from my earliest years. Mom and Dad often had to visit with the guests in

grandmothers. Elephants

Wherever you are, with whatever means you have, if you reclaim a piece of land for nature, your world will grow kinder, more benevolent. Create havens—for animals, for other people, for yourself—and let this reflect into the world. Fight for space in your own backyard, in an acre or a flowerpot or simply an embrace of the longing for company that lingers in your wilting heart. If you take this one step toward them, no matter where you are, the elephants will come to you.

When you have smashed into so many different lifestyles, you can no longer claim that yours is the only right one.

When men face danger together, they lose the frivolous definitions of the world and simply become people who must work in harmony in order to survive.

the life you are leading now is always defined by your choices and no other circumstances.

To seek the wellness in the soul we’ve lost, we return to what we know best. For me, that place was nature. Nature as a physical space that reframes and recasts one’s inner space. Nature as an outer world that, like no other force, facilitates the journey to the inner world. Nature as healer.

You have to accept what you’re going through before you can get anywhere better,

I’ll know that my sense of God is also true.

Hemingway said we heal stronger at the broken places, but I’ve found that where the heart is concerned, we also heal more tenderly, more open to the miraculous.

As the night grows darker, we kick the logs bit by bit into the fire, giving the solid wood to the flame, keeping its warmth in our bodies as our gift from the trees.