When the Year Laughs

 

“Then laughs the year; with flowers the meads are bright;

The bursting branches are tipped with flames of light:

The landscape is light; the dark clouds flee above,

And the shades of the land are a blue that is deep as love.”

Robert Bridges, “April” –

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week:

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Text and photos © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Illuminating Life

 

“Hatred paralyzes life;

Love releases it.

Hatred confuses life.

Love harmonizes it.

Hatred darkens life;

Love illuminates it.”

– Martin Luther King, Jr., A Testament of Hope

 

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

 

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week – shamrocks and Dala horse:

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Text and photos © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Courage, Gaiety, and the Quiet Mind

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.

Easing Change, Quieting Fear

 

“Kindness eases change.

Love quiets fear.”

– Octavia F. Butler, Parable of the Talents

 

Nurture peace. Cultivate kindness. Carry the calm.

Just to clarify, I’m not talking about the peace of ignorance or the kindness of platitudes or the calmness of inaction. I’m talking about a reservoir of inner peace, kindness, and calm that strengthens, balances, and guides our thoughts, our words, our actions.

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.

Mercy, Pity, Love, and Peace

 

“For Mercy has a human heart,

Pity a human face,

And Love, the human form divine,

And Peace, the human dress.”

William Blake

 

May mercy overflow your heart,

may compassion wear your face,

may love take your form.

May you be clothed in peace.

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.

Text and photos © 2019 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Loving Well, Praying Well

 

“He prayeth well who loveth well

Both man and bird and beast,

He prayeth best who loveth best

All things both great and small.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 

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 © 2019 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

With Love’s Enthusiasm

 

“From form to form, beauty to beauty,

ever changing, never resting,

all (in nature) are speeding on

with love’s enthusiasm,

singing with the stars the eternal song of creation.”

– John Muir –

 

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

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 © 2019 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Love Like a River

 

“Those who don’t feel this Love

pulling them like a river,

those who don’t drink dawn

like a cup of spring water

or take in sunset like supper,

Those who don’t want to change,

Let them sleep.”

Rumi

 

Peace is waiting for you – and joy and wonder and goodness and grace. And Love. Don’t sleep.

 

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.

For my longer posts on the art of noticing, link here.

Text and photos © 2018 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Mountain-Still

 

“The wind howls, but the mountain remains still.”

– Japanese proverb –

 

Be mountain strong. Keep standing for love and kindness and peace even as the winds of the world howl.

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

 

Nature of the week – at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens:

Shadow of the Week:

 

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

For my posts on the wonder of life, link here.

 

Text and photos © 2018 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.