Nature’s Simple Wisdom

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:

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Beneath Birdsong

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

I’ve started a practice of trying to listen beyond or underneath the shouts and clangs and alerts and clashes that demand attention. I’m trying to rediscover soft sounds, the hums, the sighs, the whispers. It’s like trying to pick out one instrument’s musical line while listening to a symphony. Right now, underneath the birdsong, there’s a soft whispering whoosh. I think it’s the sound of wind in the trees. It ebbs and flows and reminds me to listen for the constant, soft undertones of wonder, joy, peace, and hope in each day, the life-giving grace of love’s whispers. – kh, Linger: 365 Days of Peaceful Pauses

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.

If We Listen

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“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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Winter Song

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

Wild music is abroad . . .

Chill airs and wintry winds! My ear

Has grown familiar with your song;

I hear it in the opening year,

I listen, and it cheers me long.

– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow –

“Woods in Winter”

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week – winter jasmine:

Shadow of the Week:

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In the Deep Heart’s Core

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

– W.B. Yeats –

“The Lake Isle of Innisfree”

Be still. Listen. What do you hear in your deep heart’s core?

Nurture peace. Cultivate kindness. Carry the calm.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week – books on an end table made a profile:

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In the Stir

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“In the stir of too much motion:

Hold still.

Be quiet.

Listen.”

– Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations –

“Hold still.” It’s a curious expression, a lovely image: stillness in our cupped hands, our thirsty hearts, our open minds; restfulness held like a treasure, quietly, carefully, gratefully.

“Hold still.” Nurture peace. Cultivate kindness. 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.

Pasturing the Soul

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“There is . . .

the fertile silence of awareness, pasturing the soul . . .

the alive silence of alert perception . . .

the silence of peaceful accord with other persons

or communion with the cosmos.”

– Paul Goodman, Speaking and Language –

Nurture peace. Cultivate kindness. Pasture your soul, and carry the calm.

You can listen to a beautifully read, one-minute version of Goodman’s thoughts on silence at this link.

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.

The Presence of Everything

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“Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything.”

– acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton –

We need silence, the space between thoughts, between steps, between notes, between words, between day and night. If you have time, click on the link to Gordon Hempton and listen to his recordings of the sounds of silence.

Nurture peace. Cultivate kindness. 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.

Sounds of Peace

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

Old Pond

Frogs jumped in

Sound of water.

– Basho –

(translator, Lafcadio Hearn)

Pause.

Shoulders and hands relax.

Listen.

Listen past the noise

to sounds of wind, water,

bugs, birdsong,

church bell, distant train,

your own deep breath

drifting in and out.

Listen to sounds of peace.

Calm your soul.

Nurture peace. Cultivate kindness. 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.

The Dancing Breath of God

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“I talk of branches dancing in the wind

but what I mean is the breath of God.”

– Rumi –

Feel the wind. Listen as it tiptoes past in a whisper, or waltzes with swaying branches, or twirls like an ice skater, scattering sparkles of frost in wild abandon. Watch. Listen. Feel the breath of God.

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.

Carry the Calm

Karyn Henley

listening

Nature’s Simple Wisdom

Beneath Birdsong

If We Listen

Winter Song

In the Deep Heart’s Core

In the Stir

Pasturing the Soul

The Presence of Everything

Sounds of Peace

The Dancing Breath of God