winter

Delight in This Day

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Spring danced her way into winter today,

slow twirl of skirts,

whispered breath,

face to the sun.

The birds joined her,

singing spring,

announcing her presence,

encircling her scent.

Delight in this day, they sing.

Now is the time,

for when Winter finds

that Spring has stepped into his timeline,

he will blow and blast and send her away,

insistent on taking back his season.

But for this day, this moment,

dear Spring,

you are here,

and I will dance with you.

– kh –

 

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 © 2023 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Warming the Winter

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“One kind word can warm three winter months.”

– Japanese proverb –

 

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 © 2023 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Winter’s Best Secret

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Over the land freckled with snow half-thawed

The speculating rooks at their nests cawed

And saw from elm-tops, delicate as flower of grass,

What we below could not see, Winter pass.

– Edward Thomas, “Thaw” –

 

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 © 2021 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved.

Whispering to the Crocus

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…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:

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.

Deep in Winter, Deep in Me

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“In the depths of winter, I finally learned

that within me there lay an invincible summer.”

– Albert Camus, “Return to Tipasa” –

 

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

 

Nature of the week – summer smiles from the “garden” of my supermarket floral department:

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.

Winter’s Welcome

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Winter welcomes,

beckons,

invites us to

pause

on the brittle brink of the year,

witness

the shimmer of the season,

listen

for undertones of time passing

on icy tiptoe,

breathe

the crisp air.

Drink all of it.

Deeply.

Deeply grateful.

– kh –

 

Wishing you peace and grace in the new year!

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.

Dancing Toward Spring

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“. . . O Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind.”

– Percy Bysshe Shelley, from “Ode to the West Wind” –

 

Winter and Spring are in their annual dance until Winter bows out and Spring takes center stage. Enjoy the dance of the seasons!

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

 

Nature of the week – Lenten rose:

Shadow of the Week – missed the cat but caught the shadow of her tail:

 

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

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

 

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

Before the Robins Sing

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“We must live through the dreary winter

If we would value the spring;

And the woods must be cold and silent

Before the robins sing.

The flowers must be buried in darkness

Before they can bud and bloom,

And the sweetest, warmest sunshine

Comes after the storm and gloom.”

– unknown author, from Poems That Live Forever –

 

The seasons of our lives seem to follow that same pattern – storm, gloom, and then sweet warmth. “I have been bent and broken,” said Charles Dickens, “but – I hope – into a better shape.”

May your heart bloom in the warm sunshine of hope.

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 Sunday, simply sign up on the right.

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

 

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