Volcanic Vibes

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

The last days of summer stretch ahead
like a lava flow
halfway down a mountain
having burned and buried
the past weeks
on the way to burning and burying
the next few.
Hydrate, I remind myself.
The red-hot glow of summer
swims in sweltering waves
broken by brief breezes,
wisps of half-hearted wind
drifting away to elsewhere,
anywhere
cool.
It might help to hydrate,
I whisper to them,
hoping for rain.
I grew up in the dry summers
of West Texas,
where we saw mirages
on the highway,
and someone was always ready
to prove you could really and truly
fry an egg on the sidewalk.
One hot afternoon,
I left my baby doll, Connie, outside
on the concrete patio
in the mid-day midsummer sun.
She really and truly melted.
I wonder now,
in this overheated summer:
how hot do these volcanic vibes
have to be
before I melt too?
I grab my glass of water,
toast the veil-thin clouds and coax them,
Hydrate.
Fill yourselves
then spill yourselves.
Cool us and quench us
and hydrate us too.
-kh-

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the week:

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Sensing Autumn

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

I know Autumn is still weeks away
and Summer still has lots of dance in her,
but my heart has begun to turn toward Fall.
Maybe it’s because one day this week,
as I poured sunflower seeds
into the bird feeder,
a hint of coolness breezed in.
Just a hint.
At that moment,
Summer paused,
looked over her shoulder,
and nodded.
This is the way of seasons,
Autumn giving notice to Summer,
even though Summer will swelter
for a few more weeks.
But children return to school next week,
which seems an Autumn thing to do.
(Here I must pause,
being of a certain age,
obliged to remind readers
that when I was school-age,
we never went back to class
until September.
So it will forever feel unnatural
to start in August.)
Yes, although school starts next week,
our part of the world
will still
wear summer
for a while yet.
But Autumn has given us a heads-up.
She is on her way with the wonders of Fall.
My sun-baked garden senses it.
Squirrels and chipmunks do too, I think,
and the birds as well.
Now that this bit of breeze
has cooled me,
I sense Autumn too.
-kh-

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the week:

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Spring’s Last Dance

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

Spring has grown sultry.
She is ready to retire,
to cede her scepter to summer.
But a week of her reign remains,
so she is still supervising her season,
sending signals that Spring, early or late,
renews the world again and again.
She began by sweeping away
the wilds of winter,
dancing fresh life into the year—
fresh color
fresh birdsong,
fragrant drifts of blooming perfume.
Even this week,
as summer taps on her shoulder,
Spring still dazzles us with generous gifts.
From the bluebird box
full-feathered fledglings emerge,
flighty, fluttery,
new to this whole bubbling, burbling,
babbling world,
chirping and hungry,
open-mouthed and waiting to be fed.
Young flickers forage on their own,
find the suet,
hesitate,
taste,
dart away,
return.
A little finch bumps the back window,
falls and sits stunned for a while,
then flies to rest in a pot of sunflowers.
At last, with a brave leap,
she wings her way up, up, up
high into an elm.
Below in the petunias,
a small dove settles,
soft gray with dark, watchful eyes
peering around vivid pink petals.
Spring’s reign is one of hope,
and though she will soon take her bow,
she leaves us with new life and growth
and a promise to return next year
to waltz us out of winter
and wake the sleeping world
once again.
-kh-

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the week:

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Tiny Green Dragons

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

All summer, a line of tiny green dragons
has been slowly creeping
up the outer wall of my neighbor’s house.
Each dragon, from wing tip to wing tip,
is the width of my outspread hand
and is made of a collection of leaves.
Like a disciplined line of determined ants,
these small, leafy dragons
follow one after the other,
evenly spaced along a tightrope stem.
My mind traces their path
as if my fingers were drawing it—
the angles,
the curves,
the negative spaces,
the quiet climb,
the gentle stretch,
the touch of tendril to red brick
that heats in the sun
and chills in the cool night,
the cling that holds the vine tight
in wind and lashing rain.
A vine is persistently persistent,
tenaciously tenacious,
grasping at the next available surface,
in this case, iron bars of a spiral staircase.
The vine curls around the first bar,
the second,
the third,
follows its shape spiraling upward
to the second floor landing.
There it stops and celebrates this feat
by blooming into orange trumpets
all along the dragon-leaf path,
giving itself to butterflies
and hummingbirds
and me.
A gust of wind
and a scattering of leaves swirl down.
The vine simply shivers
and clings and blooms.
It will soon turn brown and brittle.
The little dragons will let go
and fly away with the wind.
I will witness this wonder,
keep a winter watch,
and wait for spring
when once again,
a line of tiny green dragons
will start their warm-weather journey
up the wall of my neighbor’s house.
-kh-

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, an carry the calm.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the week:

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These are the Days

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

These are the days
of searing sidewalks, sharp shadows,
and pop-up rainstorms
that leave the garden drooping,
dripping,
steaming.
These are the days of sweltering heat
tiptoeing timidly toward 100º,
days when I carry an insulated bag
filled with cold packs to cool off
as I wait for my grandson
in the mid-afternoon pick-up line at school.
These are the days when I wonder
how the birds cope,
why they don’t crumple to a crisp.
How do they sing so fresh and clear
in the heat of a breezeless afternoon?
These are the days when I remember
that the sun is a ball of fire
giving life to the earth
even though it’s on the edge of
boiling us for dinner.
These are also the days
when one leaf falls here,
another drifts down there,
autumn’s tiny ads for upcoming events.
One leaf on the crape myrtle turns orange,
standing out among the green,
seed pods ripen,
the Virginia creeper begins to blush.
But it’s not autumn yet,
not for a few weeks more.
With a hot, gusty sigh,
summer admits she’s dragging her feet,
dozy, droopy,
drained of energy
but not ready to relinquish her reign.
So I’ll keep the fans out
and the ice packs handy,
for these are the high, hot, heady days
of summer.
-kh-

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the week:

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Living Gold

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

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.

– Alfred, Lord Tennyson –

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week – flags at the zoo:

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An Eden Summer

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“The times are dark but never too dark for

An Eden Summer, this flower-rich creation.”

– Elizabeth Jennings –

“English Wild Flowers”

Nurture peace. Cultivate kindness. Carry the calm.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week:

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Warm, Brooding Days

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“The warm, brooding days are full of life and thoughts of life to come,

ripening seeds with next summer in them

or a hundred summers.”

– John Muir

Brood has a double meaning. It means to ponder, to think deeply. It also means protecting and preparing as a hen does when she sits on her eggs or keeps her young under her wings. So the warm days of summer are for ripening fruit and “brooding” seeds. As autumn approaches, “warm, brooding days” can also be a time of thinking deeply about life.

So keep planting seeds of peace and kindness wherever you go. Brood over those seeds, for they are “full of life and thoughts of life to come.” They hold next summer in them. They hold a hundred summers. They hold the future.

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.

A Soft Sea

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“A soft sea washed around the house,

A sea of summer air . . .”

– Emily Dickinson –

Breathe deeply of this soft sea. Breathe out heaviness, breathe in buoyancy.

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

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week – porch beams shadow each other:

The 2 Most Beautiful Words of Henry James

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“Summer afternoon – summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”

– Henry James, quoted in Edith Wharton’s A Backward Glance –

What are your two most beautiful words? I’m partial to Henry James’s two this week, having enjoyed long, lazy afternoons for the past few days on vacation at a lake in Texas. Hot outdoors, cool and air-conditioned indoors, visiting with family and friends, eating ice cream mid-afternoon. Summer afternoon.

I wish you a vacation that frees you from the usual daily stresses this summer.

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

Nature of the week – blooming hibiscus:

Shadow of the Week – pool umbrella:

Carry the Calm

Karyn Henley

summer

Volcanic Vibes

Sensing Autumn

Spring’s Last Dance

Tiny Green Dragons

These are the Days

Living Gold

An Eden Summer

Warm, Brooding Days

A Soft Sea

The 2 Most Beautiful Words of Henry James