finding inner peace

After the Storm

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Notes from last evening:

A welcome rainstorm just passed through, drenching thirsty trees and sunburned grass and sagging flowers, leaving the world in a soft green glow. Branches are still dripping. Flowers cup tiny puddles. The air is hazy with heat. The stillness is striking. It’s as if the backyard world has been caught in a freeze-frame, holding its breath, utterly, silently, majestically still. Like me.

“Often silence is the wisest thing for a man to heed.”

– Pindar –

 

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

 

Nature of the week:

 

Shadow of the Week:

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Text and photos © 2022 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Splashes of Golden Joy

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My black-eyed Susans are picturesque flowers. Tall stems curve them left or right so that they come to pose in front of a background of white windflowers or rest among the magenta and yellow lantana or sway before the creeping Jenny. Three of them stand in a thin blue bud vase that my son and his family gave me. I think if they could, they would take selfies—see us posed here for you, a still life in real life, they would say. Yes, I see you. I see your splashes of golden joy.

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 © 2022 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

The Eye of the Hurricane

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“[F]ind the eye in the hurricane, and act from that place of inner strength.”

– Arianna Huffington –

 

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 © 2022 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

What Does Hope Look Like?

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Once in a while, I reread this encouragement from an online interview with Charlotte McConaghy, author of the novel Migrations. I share it here, hoping it will encourage you, too.

The interviewer asked, “What does hope look like to you?” McConaghy answered, “It looks like all those little moments of kindness and generosity. It looks like taking the time to consider our impact on this world and what we want it to be. It looks like making those decisions, the daily choices that are small things for individuals but add up to big change when we all take part.”

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 © 2022 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Like the Glorious Rose

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“We can walk across the lawn in the morning dew, smell the grass and pick a dandelion, because, like the glorious rose, it has a beauty all its own, as do all things, if we will only learn to look for it.” – Joan Chittister, The Gift of Years

 

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 © 2022 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Go Out to Go In

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“There’s a sense of wonder, a joy, a gratitude that can only be accessed by returning to the childlike practice of experiencing the moment with as many senses as possible. There’s a peace that can only be found by lingering and noticing. If you’re in the habit, it doesn’t take long, just a pause really, a breath or two to take in the moment, to be inspired, to be enriched, to go out to go in.” – kh, Linger: 365 Days of Peaceful Pauses

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 © 2022 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

The Lure of the Distant

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“Look underfoot. . . The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are. Don’t despise your own place and hour. Every place is the center of the world.” – John Burroughs

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 © 2022 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Daily Frenzy and Creative Calm

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“There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.”

– A.J. Muste –

(This quote is often misattributed to Gandhi)

 

I meet regularly with a small group of artists to nurture our creative natures by freely expressing ourselves with a variety of material—paint, pen and ink, pencil, pastels, torn paper, and a mix of other tactile material like shells, seedpods, feathers, buttons, and beads. Before we begin, we sit in silence, breathe deeply, and let the frenzy of the day drain away so we can relax into a creative calm. Of course, art comes from emotion, and that emotion can just as often be angry or grief-stricken as well as serene. But calmness doesn’t preclude emotion or even emotional intensity; calm simply helps us deal better with those deep, intense soul emotions that are often hidden or distorted by our daily frenzy. Moving into peace requires moving in peace.

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

 

Nature of the week—a Mother’s Day gift of jasmine:

Shadow of the Week:

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Text and photos © 2022 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Possibility

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I dwell in Possibility—

A fairer House than Prose—

More numerous of Windows—

Superior—for Doors—.

– Emily Dickinson –

 

Think of all the windows and doors that open when we dwell in what’s possible and move that direction. Peace is possible. Loving kindness is possible. Walk that path and watch the windows and doors open not just for us but for others as well.

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

 

Nature of the week—and 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 © 2022 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.