“The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness.”
– Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Spring” –
Nature of the week:—pear blossoms:
Shadow of the Week:
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Text and photos © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
Happy Easter!
“Winter passed away;
and spring,
led by the months,
awakened life in all nature.”
– Mary Shelley –
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week:
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Text and photos © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
Look how after the devastating winter
the new blossoms have covered the thorns,
look how tall the cypress has risen in glory.
Spirit and water have graced the rose garden
Enhancing its beauty.
What a blessed companionship!
– Rumi –
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week – a bird ornament on top of a shelf of plants:
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Text and photos © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
Live thy Life,
Young and old,
Like yon oak,
Bright in spring,
Living gold;
Summer-rich
Then; and then
Autumn-changed
Soberer-hued
Gold again.
All his leaves
Fall’n at length,
Look, he stands,
Trunk and bough
Naked strength.
Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week – flags at the zoo:
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Text and photos © 2020 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
“Birds in the green of my garden,
Blackbirds and throstle and wren,
Wet your dear wings in the tears that are Spring’s
And so to your singing again!”
– E. Nesbit, “May Song” –
Nesbit’s poem reminds me of a quote from Victor Hugo: “Be like a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing that she has wings.”
Nurture peace. Cultivate kindness. Carry the calm.
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week – a vase of peonies that a neighbor left for me on my porch:
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Text and photos © 2020 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
…Winter still is in the air,
And the earth troubled, and the branches bare,
Yet down the fields to-day I saw her pass –
The spring – her feet went shining through the grass…
she has whispered to the crocus leaves…
She would not stay, her season is not yet,
But she has reawakened, and has set
The sap of all the world astir…
– John Drinkwater, “The Miracle” –
Listen for spring’s whisper, and breathe deeply of the quiet hope of a world astir.
Nurture peace. Cultivate kindness. Carry the calm.
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week:
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Text and photos © 2020 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
“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:
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Text and photos © 2020 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
“Everything new and pure
in the very prime of the spring
when Nature’s pulses were beating highest,
and mysteriously keeping time with our own!”
– John Muir –
Pause for a moment of peace, and notice a bud, a bloom, a spring-green leaf. Take a deep breath of the day. Match your pulse to nature’s energetic peace. Nurture that peace. Cultivate kindness. Carry the calm.
Nature of the week – “tulips” in the tulip poplar:
Shadow of the Week – a fancy fence:
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Text and photos © 2019 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
“I am a seed scattered from the barn of heaven
When spring comes rushing in my heart
I will burst in green.
Winter seems now a long forgotten dream.”
– Rumi –
Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.
Nature of the week:
Shadow of the Week:
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Text and photos © 2019 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.
“Behold the white wistarias –
The Milky Way blown by the wind.”
– Hajin –
translated by Asataro Miyamori
Long ago, before behold meant to gaze upon or observe, it meant hold or keep. In a way, that’s what we do when we observe something. Each season brings us wonders. Hold on to them. Keep them in your mind and heart so that, in turn, they may hold you and keep you in a place of calm and peace.
Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.
Nature of the week –wisteria hanging over our driveway through the neighbor’s bamboo:
Shadow of the Week:
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Text and photos © 2019 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.