Month: February 2023

Soul Stretching

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“So let us look for beauty and grace, for love and friendship, for that which is creative and birth-giving and soul-stretching. Let us dare to laugh at ourselves, healthy, affirmative laughter. Only when we take ourselves lightly can we take ourselves seriously.” – Madeleine L’Engle from her lecture Dare to Be Creative

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

 

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week:

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Text and photos © 2023 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Never Ever Before

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I’ve always been this way, I say,

and yet,

I haven’t always been this way—

not exactly,

not this unique and particular way,

living another day

with its unique and particular thoughts

and wanderings

and wishings

and astonishments.

I’ve not always been aware

of ideas I read

last night,

sparking questions I’ve asked

this morning.

Each new dawn

marks a waking

to wider wondering,

deeper thinking,

and the joy of possibility.

I’ve always been like this.

But not precisely like this.

I’ve always been made new

each day.

It has always been this way.

Yet it has never ever

been this way

before.

– kh –

 

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.

Text and photos © 2023 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

And Still They Come

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In dark silhouette,

a flock of birds

darts,

swift and low,

across a sky cloaked in clouds of gray

in shades that drift

and slowly shift,

now light,

now dark.

Wind, heavy with weather, quickens.

Air thickens.

Branches wag their fingers at the sky.

And still they come,

scores of birds,

arrows speeding,

reading the signs of the clouds,

believing the whine of the wind.

They look so sure of where they’re going.

Some inborn knowing of nature

sends them racing past the trees,

against the breeze.

Are they seeking shelter?

Outrunning the rain?

Or simply celebrating

wings and wind

and the miracle of uplift

on a fresh tide of air

as rain begins to fall.

– kh –

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.

Text and photos © 2023 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Winter Evenings

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On winter evenings, I sit at a window

and watch the twilight sky

as the sun slips away,

leaving in its wake

a gift of shifting color.

Tonight, the sky is soft,

a silver blue tinted with yellow,

and patches of pink.

Bare branches of backyard trees

curve and cross in silhouette,

upstretched in silent worship,

vespers on a silver evening.

Between and beyond

the filigree of twigs and branches,

a light appears,

bright white,

barely moving.

A distant plane.

Slowly,

smoothly,

quietly

it traces a line

through the delicate maze,

then glides away

as the silver blue sky,

slowly,

smoothly,

quietly

darkens

into a rich hush,

the velvet blue,

of a winter night.

– kh –

 

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.

Text and photos © 2023 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.