courage

Taking Ourselves Lightly

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“So let us look for beauty and grace, for love and friendship, for that which is creative and birth-giving and soul-stretching. Let us dare to laugh at ourselves, healthy, affirmative laughter. Only when we take ourselves lightly can we take ourselves seriously, so that we are given the courage to say, ‘Yes! I dare disturb the universe.’” – Madeleine L’Engle

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.

If We Listen

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“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.

Courage, Gaiety, and the Quiet Mind

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Happy New Year!

“Give us grace and strength to persevere. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare to us our friends and soften to us our enemies. Give us the strength to encounter that which is to come, that we may be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath and in all changes of fortune, and down to the gates of death loyal and loving to one another.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

 

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week—a rope fence at the zoo:

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.

Courage in Stormy Seas

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“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning to sail my ship.”

– Louisa May Alcott –

 

The word courage comes from Latin cor and Greek kardia. So take heart. Sail your ship. 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 © 2020 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Standing Strong as Stone

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“Life is mostly froth and bubble,

Two things stand like stone,

Kindness in another’s trouble,

Courage in your own.”

 

– Adam Lindsay Gordon –

 

Nurture peace. Cultivate kindness. Carry the calm.

 

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week – tinker toys beside a table:

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Text and photos © 2020 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

They Will Come Again

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“They will come again, the leaf and the flower . . .

Nothing is certain, only the certain spring.”

– Laurence Binyon –

“The Burning of the Leaves”

 

Take courage. Nurture peace. Cultivate kindness. And carry the calm.

 

Nature of the week – a rose in a street flower market in Hanoi:

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 © 2020 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Live, Breathe, Give: A Child’s Wisdom

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This week, two quotes from children’s books seem timely:

“To fear is one thing.

To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.”

– Katherine Paterson, Jacob Have I Loved –

 

“Live courage, breathe courage and give courage.”

– Dhan Gopal Mukerji, Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon –

 

Nourish peace and cultivate loving kindness. Then live calm, breathe calm, and give calm.

Nature of the week: Japanese apricot blooming at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens:

Shadow of the Week:

If you want me to send these thoughts to your email each week, simply sign up on the right.

For my posts on coming of age in a community of faith, link here.

 

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

 

Can We Feel the Eternal?