“What lies behind us and what lies before us
are small matters compared to what lies within us.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson –
Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.
Wishing you love, joy, and peace in the new year!
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week:
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Text and photos © 2023 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
I’m watching a lampshade gently sway in the updraft of warm air from a heating duct on the floor. Across the room, shamrocks bob in rising air from a matching duct below their flower pot. They are visual echoes of each other, quietly bobbing and swaying to the flow of warm air as if the shamrocks are acknowledging the movement of the lampshade, and the lampshade is respectfully nodding back. It’s a subtle dance, and I wonder why I’m drawn to it. I wonder why I note it in my journal. Maybe it’s the way these two things, so unalike, are moving quietly and gently in harmony. Maybe it’s witnessing this backdrop of life that carries on whether I’m here to see it or not, the way breeze, trees, stars, and seasons play their role in the flow of life. Maybe it’s because now that I’ve seen these two, I’m part of their dance.– kh, from Noticing: 365 Days of Calm Reflections
Nature and shadow are the same photo this week:
Merry Christmas!
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Text and photos © 2022 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved
The morning sun is melting the frost on roofs and lawns except where there are shadows. So instead of the shadows being dark, they’re frosty white. The trunk of one of our elm trees is casting a shadow on the next-door garage roof. Its shadow is a long, rectangular streak of white frost on dark gray shingles. It seems backward for a shadow to be white. But then, nature always has something new up her sleeve, and I always have something to learn. – kh, from Noticing: 365 Days of Calm Reflections
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.
A blanket of soft, silver-gray clouds
covers the morning sky
as far as I can see.
Even indoors, I feel the weight of it.
I try not to see it as gloomy
but as a protective roof
over the pines and the bare elms.
All is still and quiet.
The whole world seems to have taken
a day off.
Rest, the clouds say.
Rest after this busy, crazy year.
Rest under this silver gray blanket of sky.
– kh –
From Noticing: 365 Days of Calm Reflections
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 forth under the open sky,
and listen to Nature’s teachings.
What is Nature teaching me? To listen, I think. The world will circle on with or without me. The evening star will rise. Clouds will sail the skies. Cicadas will buzz. Crickets will chirp. Trees will dance in the wind. Seasons will glide in and then pass on. Nature says to simply breathe deeply and listen. (From my new book Noticing, available now.)
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.
It is the sky that makes the earth so lovely at sunrise,
and so splendid at sunset.
In the one it breathes over the earth the crystal-like ether,
in the other liquid gold.
A wondrous sky greets this cold, crisp morning. It’s criss-crossed with contrails, probably due to holiday travel. Toward the horizon, a wide sweep of thin, feathery clouds spans the blue like a skyscape dry-brushed in white across a deep blue canvas. All this, and the sun is still on the rise. It’s painting tree tops gold, while their lower trunks and branches rest in twilight shadow. The sky is breathing over the earth, waking it up with beauty.
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.
“Let us be grateful
to people who make us happy,
they are the charming gardeners
who make our souls blossom.”
– Marcel Proust –
Happy Thanksgiving!
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.
November is a wise old woman
weaving words of wisdom
from a skein of experience
in the colors of sadness
and joy.
– 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 © 2022 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
The clock ticks quietly
mid-morning
on this day that’s sunny
with a thin layer of clouds.
It’s warm enough for open windows.
A light breeze drifts in.
Outside it’s flicking leaves off the trees.
They tumble,
somersault,
land with soft clicks,
rattle to a stop and settle,
only to be scooped up
by a sudden gust
that skitters them,
scatters them,
tumbles them
into a pile against the fence.
The elm is speckled with the hangers-on,
the last to let go.
Soon it will be empty
of leaves.
The clock ticks
quietly toward noon.
– 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 © 2022 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
The higher your structure is to be,
the deeper must be its foundation.
– St. Augustine –
Yesterday I walked with a friend along a trail that circles the lake at Radnor Lake State Park here in Nashville. The trail edges the woods, where at this time of year, gold and red leaves drift down to cover the path like a carpet. At several places, large tree roots jut up and out in a jumble across the path. These great knees and elbows of roots rise and dip and curve and cross. I watch my footing and pick my way through. The woods feel ancient, and it’s a great privilege to see these old roots. I know that the trees have other roots going deep, deep, deep down into the earth. So it feels like these uplifted roots are a bit of a gift, a secret revealed. Grow tall, they say. Dance with the breeze. Bend with the wind. And stay rooted.
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.