choices

The Salty Spray of Memory

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Sometimes

all the wrong choices I’ve made

come at me like a returning tide.

With the force of a wall of water,

they hit me full in the face,

wave after

wave

threatening to drown me in

regret.

It’s all I can do to keep my footing

on this rocky beach

and let it wash over me.

For it will wash over—

I’m familiar enough with this

edge of the ocean

to know that much.

The tide that comes in will

recede,

and I will find that I am still standing,

God only knows how,

but

drenched,

I stand in the sunlight of grace,

drip dry,

breathe the salty spray of memory

deeply in,

deeply out

until my breath comes without

hitching.

Peace returns

with the hope that

as long as I am still standing,

still breathing,

then with grace,

with peace,

with love,

I can

sometimes

turn the tide.

-kh-

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

 

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the week:

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Text and photos © 2024 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

What Adds Up to a Life?

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“Begin at once to live,

and count each separate day as a separate life.”

– Lucius Annaeus Seneca –

I often find bits of wisdom tucked away in novels. Recently I was reading the novel Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan and found this: “She had made a choice and then she had made another and another after that. Taken together, the small choices anyone made added up to a life.”

May you choose peace daily. Nurture  it, cultivate loving-kindness, carry the calm, and that will be your life.

Nature of the week – poplar leaf after a rainstorm:

Shadow of the Week – a tree shadow spills into the street:

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

 

Text and photos © 2017 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.