Think toward whatever leads to hope,
to beauty,
to peace,
to gracious love.
Then move in that direction.
– kh –
Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week:
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Text and photos © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
“It is necessary for me to see the first point of light which begins to be dawn . . . I receive from the Eastern woods, the tall oaks, the one word DAY, which is never the same. It is always in a totally new language.” – Thomas Merton
Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week:
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Text and photos © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
“Be not blind, but open-eyed
to the great wonders of Nature,
familiar, everyday objects though they be to thee.”
– Orchot Tzaddikim –
– a 15th century Jewish ethical work –
“There is not a particle of life
which does not bear poetry within it.”
– Gustave Flaubert –
Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week:
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Text and photos © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
“The art of art,
the glory of expression…
is simplicity.”
– Walt Whitman –
It’s the simple things that nourish me. My grandson’s smile. The laughter of friends. A pepper turning red on the vine. The dance of leaves in a breeze on a hot day. The sun shining red through a broad canna leaf. The scent of citronella leaves at the back door. The prickly center of a coneflower. Smooth, sweet coconut yogurt. The chirring of a wren as it guards its nest box. Simple, sacred gifts, each a wonder of art and glory, each an invitation to joy and peace.
Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week:
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Text and photos © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
“The course of Nature is the art of God.”
– Edward Young –
Linger,
heart open,
intent on the smallest bit
of nature’s art—
a pebble,
a butterfly,
a bud,
raindrops;
let wonder widen,
dreams deepen,
hopes stretch and soar
up and out and into
the eternal mystery
that many call
God.
–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 © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
Here’s a riddle for you:
What’s so fragile that you can break it by just saying its name?
(The answer follows this next quote.)
“In a world of noise, confusion and conflict,
it is necessary that there is a place of inner silence and peace,
not the peace of mere relaxation
but the peace of inner clarity and love.”
– Thomas Merton –
The answer to the riddle is:
Silence.
Wishing you the inner silence of peace, clarity, and love.
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week:
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Text and photos © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
“One of the hardest lessons we have to learn in this life, and one that many persons never learn, is to see the divine, the celestial, the pure, in the common, the near at hand—to see that heaven lies about us here in this world.” – John Burroughs
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week:
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Text and photos © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
“Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive God to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.” – Max Ehrmann, “Desiderata”
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week – shadows and reflections in a double paned window:
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Text and photos © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
The energy of this week lost some of its spark at the death of a lovely friend, a good, creative, and generous soul. I’m grateful for the community we shared at Art and Soul Nashville, where she was—and her memory continues to be—a joyful, hopeful part of the welcome, the creativity, the encouragement, and the peace.
Here are some thoughts on peace that I wrote a few weeks ago:
For Peace
I’m grateful for the gentle souls
who hear peace,
hold it in their hearts and
hum it into mine.
I’m grateful for the fiery souls
who envision peace,
sing it out loud and
shout its possibilities into the world.
I’m grateful for souls both gentle and fiery
who know peace is both deep and wide,
sometimes the gift of a whispered breeze,
sometimes a hard-won shelter in storm.
I pray for the holding,
the hoping,
the healing
of peace.
– KH
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week – short cat, long shadow:
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Text and photos © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
“In the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair.” – Howard Thurman
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week:
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Text and photos © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.