peace

Love Like a River

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“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:

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

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

When Cares Drop Off Like Leaves

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“Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.” – John Muir

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 wonder of life, link here.

 

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

To Be Human

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“To be human is to be able to grasp hope,

to hold it tightly to the chest,

to let its nectar seep into our hearts

and give us peace.”

– Kaitlin B. Curtice –

 

Nurture peace by grasping hope, holding it tightly, and letting it seep into your heart.

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 posts on the wonder of life, link here.

 

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

The Pulse of Hope and Peace

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“We shall find peace,

We shall hear angels,

We shall see the sky

Sparkling with diamonds.”

– Anton Chekhov –

 

I think it’s possible to carry within us a sense of calm so strong that the world knows hope and peace simply because of our presence and so powerful that every physical space we step into pulses with hope and peace simply because we’re there. So find peace, hear angels, see the sky sparkling with diamonds . . . nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm. We are the pulse of hope and peace.

Nature of the week – I meant to photograph the interior of a blossom – and my new close-up lens focused on an ant:

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.

Mountain-Still

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“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.

Here, Now, This Present Moment

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Leafless branches arch,

angle, interweave to frame

cloud veils spun of ice.

– kh –

 

This is what I see at this moment from the window at my desk:

The tick of the clock on my bedroom shelf. The rush of a jet fading as it travels the icy winter sky. The quiet shiver and sway of vines in the chill breeze. This is my present moment as I write this last post of 2017.

Once again, time carries us toward the speed bump between one year and the next. That speed bump is always a marker of sorts, a chance to glance into the rearview mirror at the year falling quickly behind us before the new year carries us full speed ahead. Thanks for joining me this past year as I posted what I saw, what I read, and what I found inspiring, always with an eye, an ear, a heart open to peace.

That’s where peace starts, you know – in this present moment, here and now, in my eye and yours. In my ear and yours. In my heart and yours. As much as we’d like to wave a wand over the entire world and make the jumbled and jagged pieces smooth out and fall into place, peace has to start with each of us being peace and kindness for family and friends and co-workers and everyone we meet.

May 2018 be a year of peace so powerful that it spreads from each of us into the whole world.

Nurture peace, cultivate loving kindness, and carry the calm into the new year.

Nature of the week – the insides of acorn tops:

Shadow of the Week – from holiday decorations:

 

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

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

 

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

“This Present Little Instant”

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“No heaven can come to us

unless our hearts find rest in it today.

Take heaven!

No peace lies in the future

which is not hidden in this present little instant.

Take peace!”

– Fra Giovanni Giocondo –

 

Nurture peace, cultivate loving-kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week – a blue poppy from the botanical gardens in Tromso, Norway:

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 life, faith, and the mystery we call God, link here.

 

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

Which Way to Peace?

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“There is no way to peace; peace is the way.”

– A.J. Muste –

(but often attributed to Gandhi)

Nurture peace, cultivate loving-kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week – hollyhock:

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 life, faith, and the mystery we call God, link here.

 

A Curious Old Word

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

To Cherish a Just and Lasting Peace

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“With malice toward none; with charity for all;

with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right,

let us strive on to finish the work we are in:

to bind up the nation’s wounds;

to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan,

to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves,

and with all nations.”

– Abraham Lincoln, second inaugural address, 1865 –

 

Nurture peace, cultivate loving-kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week ­– celebrating the summer solstice in Norway:

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 life, faith, and the mystery we call God, link here.

 

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

Four Simple Guidelines to Live By

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“Be good, keep your feet dry, your eyes open, your heart at peace.”

– Thomas Merton –

Nurture peace, cultivate loving 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 week, simply sign up on the right.

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

 

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