--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: There are those, however, that are not…" description: "\"There are those, however, that are not frightened of grief: dropping deep into the sorrow, they find therein a necessary elixir to the numbness. When t..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/709/david-abram-15943_bark_there-are-those-however-that-are-not-fri_1650286.png" --- # There are those, however, that are not frightened of… ![“There are those, however, that are not frightened of grief: dropping deep into the sorrow, they find therein a necessary elixir to the numbness. When they encounter one another, when they press their foreheads against the bark of a centuries-old tree...their eyes well with tears that fall easily…” quote by David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/709/david-abram-15943_bark_there-are-those-however-that-are-not-fri_1650286.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/709/david-abram-15943_bark_there-are-those-however-that-are-not-fri_1650286.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/709/david-abram-15943_bark_there-are-those-however-that-are-not-fri_1650286.png) > “There are those, however, that are not frightened of grief: dropping deep into the sorrow, they find therein a necessary elixir to the numbness. When they encounter one another, when they press their foreheads against the bark of a centuries-old tree...their eyes well with tears that fall easily to the ground. The soil needs this water. Grief is but a gate, and our tears a kind of key opening a place of wonder thats been locked away. Suddenly we notice a sustaining resonance between the drumming heart within our chest and the pulse rising from the ground” [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Grief, when fully felt, becomes a transformative elixir that reconnects us with the earth and inner wonder. **In simple terms:** Deep grief can heal and reconnect us with nature. Key Takeaway Embrace sorrow as a gateway to deeper connection. Themes grief connection nature healing Mood reflective melancholic hopeful Type poetic philosophical When to use this quote - personal loss - environmental activism - spiritual practice - community mourning Key Concepts ecopsychology transformation ritual Questions to Reflect On - How can we honor grief while staying grounded? - What practices help turn sorrow into renewal? A Different Perspective Grief may also overwhelm and paralyze if not balanced with support. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Bark](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bark/) [Century](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/century/) [Chests](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/chests/) [Death](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/death/) [Dropping](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dropping/) [Drumming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/drumming/) [Elixir](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/elixir/) [Encounters](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/encounters/) [Eye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/eye/) [Fall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fall/) [Foreheads](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/foreheads/) [Frightened](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/frightened/) [Frightened Grief](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/frightened-grief-646112/) [Gates](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/gates/) [Grief](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/grief/) [Grief Dropping](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/grief-dropping-646113/) [Grief Gate](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/grief-gate-646114/) [Heart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/heart/) [Keys](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/keys/) [Kind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kind/) [Locked](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/locked/) [Needs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/needs/) [Numbness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/numbness/) [Old trees](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/old-trees/) [Opening](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/opening/) [Presses](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/presses/) [Pulse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pulse/) [Resonance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/resonance/) [Rising](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rising/) [Soil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/soil/) [Sorrow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sorrow/) [Sustaining](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sustaining/) [Tears](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tears/) [Tree](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tree/) [Water](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/water/) [Water Grief](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/water-grief-646115/) [Wells](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wells/) [Wonder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wonder/) ## Related quotes > [It was a though we’d been living for a year in a dense grove of old trees, a cluster of firs, each with its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/it-was-a-though-we-d-been-living-for-a-year-in-a-dense-grove-of-old/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) > [This is what I have heard at last the wind in December lashing the old trees with rain unseen rain racing along the tiles…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-s-merwin/this-is-what-i-have-heard-at-last-the-wind-in-december-lashing-the/) [W. S. Merwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-s-merwin/) > [I love The Inn at Palmetto Bluff, an Auberge Property in Bluffton, South Carolina. It's a spectacular corner of the world, with massive old…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gail-simmons/i-love-the-inn-at-palmetto-bluff-an-auberge-property-in-bluffton/) [Gail Simmons](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gail-simmons/) > [I like old people, just as I like old trees: in their shadow there is freshness and peace, one admires them, and around them…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/svetlana-alliluyeva/i-like-old-people-just-as-i-like-old-trees-in-their-shadow-there-is/) [Svetlana Alliluyeva](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/svetlana-alliluyeva/) > [I love looking at you, hundred-year-old tree, loaded with shoots and boughs as though you were a stripling. Teach me the secret of growing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-lder-c-mara/i-love-looking-at-you-hundred-year-old-tree-loaded-with-shoots-and/) [Hélder Câmara](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-lder-c-mara/) > [Yet I will look upon thy face again, My own romantic Bronx, and it will be A face more pleasant than the face of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-rodman-drake/yet-i-will-look-upon-thy-face-again-my-own-romantic-bronx-and-it-will/) [Joseph Rodman Drake](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-rodman-drake/) > [“The bear and I -- we rise like a windstorm to witness these old trees talk.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vivian-demuth/the-bear-and-i-we-rise-like-a-windstorm-to-witness-these-old-trees/) [Vivian Demuth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vivian-demuth/) > [To the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-blake/to-the-eyes-of-the-man-of-imagination-nature-is-imagination-itself/) [William Blake](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-blake/) > [The forest of Compiegne. Look at it. Like a kind grandmother dozing in her rocking chair. Old trees practicing curtsies in the wind because…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/billy-wilder/the-forest-of-compiegne-look-at-it-like-a-kind-grandmother-dozing-in/) [Billy Wilder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/billy-wilder/) > [I'm thinking of writing a children's story about a leaf on a tree who arrogantly insists he's a self-made, independent leaf. Then one day…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chuck-lorre/i-m-thinking-of-writing-a-children-s-story-about-a-leaf-on-a-tree-who/) [Chuck Lorre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chuck-lorre/) > [I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beechtree, or a yellow birch, or an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/i-frequently-tramped-eight-or-ten-miles-through-the-deepest-snow-to/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [We are all but recent leaves on the same old tree of life and if this life has adapted itself to new functions and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-szent-gyorgyi/we-are-all-but-recent-leaves-on-the-same-old-tree-of-life-and-if-this/) [Albert Szent-Gyorgyi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-szent-gyorgyi/) > [Now that I think about it, I was arrested in 1992. Some people may think of that as a bad thing, but I feel…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/winona-laduke/now-that-i-think-about-it-i-was-arrested-in-1992-some-people-may/) [Winona LaDuke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/winona-laduke/) > [It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-louis-stevenson/it-is-not-so-much-for-its-beauty-that-the-forest-makes-a-claim-upon/) [Robert Louis Stevenson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-louis-stevenson/) > [The vine that has grown old on an old tree falls with the ruin of that tree, and through that bad companionship must perish…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leonardo-da-vinci/the-vine-that-has-grown-old-on-an-old-tree-falls-with-the-ruin-of/) [Leonardo da Vinci](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leonardo-da-vinci/) ## More by David Abram > [Does the human intellect, or "reason," really spring us free from our inherence in the depths of this wild proliferation of forms? Or on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/does-the-human-intellect-or-reason-really-spring-us-free-from-our/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) > [“Human language, for us moderns, has swung in on itself, turning its back on the beings around us. Language is a human property, suitable…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/human-language-for-us-moderns-has-swung-in-on-itself-turning-its-back/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) > [Only as the written text began to speak would the voices of the forest, and of the river, begin to fade. And only then…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/only-as-the-written-text-began-to-speak-would-the-voices-of-the/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) > [Each place its own mind, its own psyche! Oak, Madrone, Douglas fir, red-tailed hawk, serpentine in the sandstone, a certain scale to the topography,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/each-place-its-own-mind-its-own-psyche-oak-madrone-douglas-fir-red/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) > [What is magic? In the deepest sense, magic is an experience. It's the experience of finding oneself alive within a world that is itself…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/what-is-magic-in-the-deepest-sense-magic-is-an-experience-it-s-the/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) > [Other animals, in a constant and mostly unmediated relation with their sensory surroundings, think with the whole of their bodies.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/other-animals-in-a-constant-and-mostly-unmediated-relation-with-their/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) > [The telling of stories, like singing and praying, would seem to be an almost ceremonial act, an ancient and necessary mode of speech that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/the-telling-of-stories-like-singing-and-praying-would-seem-to-be-an/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) > [Such reciprocity is the very structure of perception. We experience the sensuous world only by rendering ourselves vulnerable to that world. Sensory perception is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/such-reciprocity-is-the-very-structure-of-perception-we-experience/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) > [“Ecologically considered, it is not primarily our verbal statements that are "true" or "false," but rather the kind of relations that we sustain with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/ecologically-considered-it-is-not-primarily-our-verbal-statements/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) > [A particular place in the land is never, for an oral culture, just a passive or inert setting for the human events that occur…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/a-particular-place-in-the-land-is-never-for-an-oral-culture-just-a/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) > [If, on the other hand, we wish to describe a particular phenomenon without repressing our direct experience, then we cannot avoid speaking of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/if-on-the-other-hand-we-wish-to-describe-a-particular-phenomenon/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) > [We are human only in contact, and conviviality, with what is not human.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/we-are-human-only-in-contact-and-conviviality-with-what-is-not-human/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) > [The animate earth - this moody terrain that we experience differently in anger and in joy, in grief and in love - is both…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/the-animate-earth-this-moody-terrain-that-we-experience-differently/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) > [To describe the animate life of particular things is simply the most precise and parsimonious way to articulate the things as we spontaneously experience…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/to-describe-the-animate-life-of-particular-things-is-simply-the-most/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) > [Sensory perception is the silken web that binds our separate nervous systems into the encompassing ecosystem.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-abram/sensory-perception-is-the-silken-web-that-binds-our-separate-nervous/) [David Abram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) [Explore all 41 David Abram quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-abram/) ## More Bark quotes > [A tree is a self: it is 'unseen shaping' more than it is leaves or bark, roots or cellulose or fruit ... What this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-swimme/a-tree-is-a-self-it-is-unseen-shaping-more-than-it-is-leaves-or-bark/) [Brian Swimme](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-swimme/) > [If the watchdog doesn't bark, how do you know there's a burglar in the basement? And the press is supposed to be a watchdog.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-moyers/if-the-watchdog-doesn-t-bark-how-do-you-know-there-s-a-burglar-in-the/) [Bill Moyers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-moyers/) > [Guests are people who come to your home to see you whine at the table, bark loudly, jump on women wearing pantyhose, and do…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peg-kehret/guests-are-people-who-come-to-your-home-to-see-you-whine-at-the-table/) [Peg Kehret](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peg-kehret/) > [I was haunted always by my other life-my drab room in the Bronx, my square foot of the subway, my fixation upon the day's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/f-scott-fitzgerald/i-was-haunted-always-by-my-other-life-my-drab-room-in-the-bronx-my/) [F. Scott Fitzgerald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/f-scott-fitzgerald/) > [We must guard against becoming so engrossed in the specific nature of the roots and bark of the trees of knowledge as to miss…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-s-patton/we-must-guard-against-becoming-so-engrossed-in-the-specific-nature-of/) [George S. Patton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-s-patton/) > [A tortoise is, I suppose, a Jewish pet. It knows its place. Out on the lawn. It doesn't bark. It doesn't tear the Dralon.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maureen-lipman/a-tortoise-is-i-suppose-a-jewish-pet-it-knows-its-place-out-on-the/) [Maureen Lipman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maureen-lipman/) > [Our legal system, including the police, is anti-Dalit and anti-poor. The death penalty laws' wrathful majesty, in blood-shot equality, deals the fatal blow on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/v-r-krishna-iyer/our-legal-system-including-the-police-is-anti-dalit-and-anti-poor-the/) [V. R. Krishna Iyer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/v-r-krishna-iyer/) > [It is no use painting the foot of the tree white, the strength of the bark cries out from beneath the paint.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aime-cesaire/it-is-no-use-painting-the-foot-of-the-tree-white-the-strength-of-the/) [Aime Cesaire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aime-cesaire/) > [Dogs, also, bark at what they do not know.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/heraclitus/dogs-also-bark-at-what-they-do-not-know/) [Heraclitus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/heraclitus/) > [The dogs may bark, but the caravan moves on](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-needham/the-dogs-may-bark-but-the-caravan-moves-on/) [Joseph Needham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-needham/) > [Dogs that bark dont bite.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/german-proverb/dogs-that-bark-dont-bite/) [German Proverb](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/german-proverb/) > [I bark my voice out through a closed throat, pretty much. It's more, perhaps, like a dog in some ways. It does have its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-waits/i-bark-my-voice-out-through-a-closed-throat-pretty-much-it-s-more/) [Tom Waits](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-waits/) > [Ah, to that far distant strand Bridge there was not to convey, Not a bark was near at hand, Yet true love soon found…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-schiller/ah-to-that-far-distant-strand-bridge-there-was-not-to-convey-not-a/) [Friedrich Schiller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-schiller/) > [Don't bother about people who judge you without knowing you... Remember, dogs bark if they don't know the person](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/don-t-bother-about-people-who-judge-you-without-knowing-you-remember/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [If you want to talk with the dogs, you must learn to bark, and bark like an old dog because he doesnt bark without…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vikrant-parsai/if-you-want-to-talk-with-the-dogs-you-must-learn-to-bark-and-bark/) [Vikrant Parsai](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vikrant-parsai/) [Browse all 383 Bark quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bark/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "There are those, however, that are not frightened of grief: dropping deep into the sorrow, they find therein a necessary elixir to the numbness. When they encounter one another, when they press their foreheads against the bark of a centuries-old tree...their eyes well with tears that fall easily to the ground. 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