Mute Music

“[E]very withered stem

and stubble rimed with frost,

contribute something

to the mute music [of winter].”

– Emerson, “Nature” –

Pause for a moment this week to enjoy stems and stubble, to listen to the shushing sound they make in the wind – or if the day is still, to discover the season’s mute music.

Nurture peace, cultivate loving kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week:

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For my posts on life, faith, and the mystery we call God, link here.

No One is Useless

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“No one is useless in this world

who lightens the burden of it for anyone else.”

– Charles Dickens –

Nurture peace, cultivate loving kindness, carry the calm, and lighten someone’s burden.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week – leaves shadowing leaves:

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For my posts on life, faith, and the mystery we call God, link here.

Even in Darkness and Silence

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.”
– Helen Keller, The Story of My Life –

Nurture peace, cultivate loving kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week – a stream at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens:

Shadow of the Week – morning shadows on the wall by my desk:

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For my posts on life, faith, and the mystery we call God, link here.

Rest and Be Thankful

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“Give me the splendid silent sun,

with all his beams full-dazzling;

Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe

and red from the orchard;

Give me a field where the

unmow’d grass grows;

Give me an arbor, give me the trellis’d grape;

Give me fresh corn and wheat – give me

serene-moving animals, teaching content.”

– Walt Whitman –

“Rest and be thankful.”

– William Wordsworth –

Nurture peace, cultivate loving kindness, carry the calm, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week:

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For my posts on life, faith, and the mystery we call God, link here.

The Stirring of the Wind

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“A leaf quivers on a branch and my heart trembles

the wind stirs the leaves and beauty stirs my heart.”

– Rumi –

Pay deep attention to the stirring of the wind,

the stirring of the spirit,

the stirring of beauty in the heart.

Hold this treasure close.

Nurture peace, cultivate loving kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week:

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For my posts on life, faith, and the mystery we call God, link here.

Turning Ruts into Adventures

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“There was a warm sunset over the wooded valleys,

a yellowish tinge on the pines.

Reddish dun-coloured clouds like dusky flames stood over it. . .

Before, I walked in the ruts of travel;

now I adventured.”

Henry David Thoreau

A French saying commonly attributed to writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr says, “Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns: I am grateful that thorns have roses.” G.K. Chesterton made the same point in a different way: “An adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.” We can choose to see thorns or roses, inconveniences or adventures. We might as well choose roses and adventures.

Pay attention. See adventure. Nurture peace, cultivate loving kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week:

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For my posts on life, faith, and the mystery we call God, link here.

How Autumn Conspires with the Sun

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“To Autumn”

Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;

To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For summer has o’erbrimmed their clammy cells.

– John Keats –

May you journey through autumn with your heart open wide to its bounty. Pay attention. Nurture peace, cultivate loving kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week:

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For my posts on life, faith, and the mystery we call God, link here.

In Your Own Shadow

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“Stop walking in your own shadow

wallowing in your foolish thoughts.

Raise your head . . . walk

among the flowers . . .

look toward the sun.”

– Rumi –

Pay attention. Nurture peace, cultivate loving 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.

For my posts on life, faith, and the mystery we call God, link here.

A Greater Mystery

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“It is sometimes the mystery of death

that brings one to a consciousness

of the still greater mystery of life.”

– Kate Douglas Wiggin

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

I’m in Texas this week with my Dad and my three younger sisters at my mother’s hospital bedside in ICU as she breathes with the help of oxygen. Mother is 90 years old, and from her hospital bed, she has been writing her good-byes on sheets of paper on a clipboard – amazingly, without looking at pen or paper. We don’t know what will happen from one moment to the next, but we do know that each breath is precious.

Pay deep attention. Breathe in the mystery of life; breathe out gratitude. Nurture peace, cultivate loving kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week: