stillness

The Changing Weather of Peace

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Peace and stillness—
sometimes they go together,
sometimes they don’t.
Like wind,
peace can breeze in softly,
but it can also whistle sparkling cold
through cracks in closed hearts.
Wake up, it says, all will be well.
There’s a pensive peace
that watches the sky for storm clouds.
There’s peace that sighs in relief
when trouble skims past,
simply rocking branches, teasing leaves.
Then there’s peace that weathers the storm
like a boulder unmoved,
the tree left standing.
And there’s a festive peace,
noisy and fresh as a sudden spring shower,
full of laughter, lifted glasses, shared stories.
This holiday season held that peace for me—
a flowing, swirling, rushing peace
of listening and watching the joy of family,
the gratitude of gathering,
the hope of health and happiness to come.
Now that family has left
and I sit alone in my family room,
the stillness returns.
Peace drifts down like silent snow,
and I know that peace
is the weather
of the healing heart.
-kh-

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week:


Shadow of the week:

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Text and photos © Karyn Henley 2024. All rights reserved.

After the Storm

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Notes from last evening:

A welcome rainstorm just passed through, drenching thirsty trees and sunburned grass and sagging flowers, leaving the world in a soft green glow. Branches are still dripping. Flowers cup tiny puddles. The air is hazy with heat. The stillness is striking. It’s as if the backyard world has been caught in a freeze-frame, holding its breath, utterly, silently, majestically still. Like me.

“Often silence is the wisest thing for a man to heed.”

– Pindar –

 

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.

A Point of Balancing Calm

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“I’m wishing you a few moments of silence and stillness today. Close your eyes. Listen to your breath. Feel the subtle messages your skin receives from the air and the textures you touch. Catch scents that drift to you. Then open your eyes and focus on one small object. Notice its shape, size, and colors. Listen to your breath again. Feel the peace of the moment. You are a fulcrum, a support, a point of balancing calm in the world.” – kh, Linger: 365 Days of Peaceful Pauses

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

And to all my friends near and far: Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!

Nature of the week – the solstice moon:

Shadow of the Week:

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Text and photos © 2021 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.

In the Stir

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“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.

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

Night, Still and Silent

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Profoundly still the twilight air,

Lifeless the landscape; so we deem,

Till like a phantom gliding near

A stag bends down to drink the stream.

And far away a mountain zone,

A cold, white waste of snow-drifts lies,

And one star, large and soft and lone,

Silently lights the unclouded skies.

– Charlotte Bronte, “Speak of the North” –

 

May the skies of your heart be unclouded, lit by the star of 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.

Like the Sun, Silent and Still

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“Be like the Sun,

King without courtiers,

silent and still as a fulcrum.”

– Rumi –

Wishing you moments of silence and stillness this week. Close your eyes. Listen to your breath. Feel the subtle messages your skin receives from the air and the textures you touch. Catch scents that drift to you. Open your eyes and focus on one small object. Notice its shape, size, colors. Listen to your breath again. Feel the peace of the moment. You’re a fulcrum, a support, a point of balance calming the world around you.

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.

Art and Stillness

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“Art has something to do with

the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos.

A stillness which characterizes prayer, too,

and the eye of the storm . . .

an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.”

– Saul Bellow, quoted in Writers at Work, edited by George Plimpton

 

Find your place of stillness, your prayer, your eye of the storm. Rest in it, embody it, for you are a work of art.

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 © 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.

As Deep as Eternity

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Sleet began falling yesterday morning as the temperatures outside dropped into the teens. By afternoon, the sleet had turned to snow, and this morning I woke to a silent world, blanketed in white. It’s now midday, but everyone seems to be staying indoors, and the quiet continues. At the end of a busy, noisy week, this interlude of stillness and peace is welcome.

“Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time.”

– Thomas Carlyle –

 

“Let silence take you to the core of life.”

– Rumi –

 

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

Nature of the week – the view from my desk:

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 © 2018 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.