Season of the Sakura

“Spring night,

cherry-

blossom dawn.”

Two years ago, I was in Japan during cherry blossom season. My son’s family and I picnicked alongside other families in a park full of cherry trees – sakura – rich with blooms. We strolled paths lined with cherry blossoms and delighted in delicate petals, breeze-blown, drifting gently to the ground. It was a time to pause in wonder at the beauty and the peace of spring. I hope you, too, can pause and find moments of peace as you experience the wonders of this season.

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week:

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Divine Peace, Enthusiastic Joy

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“Every day opens and closes like a flower,

noiseless, effortless.

Divine peace glows on all the majestic landscape,

like the silent enthusiastic joy

that sometimes transfigures a noble human face.”

– John Muir –

“Silent enthusiastic joy.” That’s what I often see in Thursday night art class at Art and Soul. Music plays softly in the background as my friends and I work independently but side by side, each of us creating art that comes from our souls and nourishes our souls. It’s then that I often see in my friends’ faces a “silent enthusiastic joy.”

But I picture other faces as well – my dad and sisters laughing uproariously in enthusiastic joy – delightfully not silent. Then there are my friends in the church choir as we listen to our director in silent, enthusiastic joy – which transforms into the joy of song. Whose faces do you picture when you think of enthusiastic joy – silent or not?

Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said, “Earth laughs in flowers.” In our part of the world, nature is now in bloom. As each day opens and closes like a flower, I wish you the divine peace that comes with earth’s joy and laughter. Happy Spring!

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week – peach blossoms:

Shadow of the Week – stems in a back-porch pot:

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Loving Well, Praying Well

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“He prayeth well who loveth well

Both man and bird and beast,

He prayeth best who loveth best

All things both great and small.”

– Samuel Taylor Coleridge –

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week:

If you want me to send these thoughts to your email each Sunday, simply sign up on the right.

Wiser Today

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.” – Jonathan Swift

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week: