03.09.2026. Growing Heart-Lungs
Hello dear Friends,
“Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground.”
—Oscar Wilde
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My heart keeps getting broken by this world, by the climate of the news, I watch myself teeter like a playground seesaw, maybe you too?
Teetering back and forth from the upsets and unspeakable, urgent troubles in this world: the 160 elementary-school-age girls not coming home from school; the dropping of bombs; black raindrops full of toxic oil falling from the sky in Tehran; crayons and paper being taken away, the scotch-taped drawings done by children, silenced and ripped off detention center walls by guards…and the list of unending harm goes on.
Then there are the fingerprints of awe, of blessings quietly pressing themselves even into the tiniest cracks, the enormity of the holy, everywhere. People standing like a great field of trees, side by side, sharing breath and sky, roots intertwined—tree-song and the miracle of life everywhere.
And, oh my, do not miss the three closing songs below. Grab a Kleenex. Let your tears flow. Sometimes a tender sob—the waters of the heart and microdoses of love through the vibration of song—is the energy medicine needed for this unraveling world, this concerning time. It helps our nervous systems regulate and calm.
So I say to you, go ahead, have a good cry. After your cheeks have dried, I know you and I will get back to our "job," our holy task, our spark to offer and keep aflame during this time. So please, follow your tears. They matter. They know the way to what is orchid-soft and true to you, what is yours to do, what is important for you to nourish on your insides too. This is how we bloom in the compost of catastrophic times.
We keep each other's flames alive. We take a good seat inside; we reside with a posture of dignity, elegance and ease. We root our pelvises into worm-rich soil. We let our hearts be steeped. We call off the ready-to-bite watchdogs around our heart’s temple doors.
The next true thing I know—this, you and I must own—is that our light is needed; it is crucial for our planet and the human species to survive.
In the world of energy science, like attracts like. What we illumine in this world—in thoughts, in words, in actions, and prayers—does matter. We add to the universal energy field of unitive consciousness, rooted in interconnectedness and intelligent cooperation, or not. What is at stake if we do not each stitch in and shine our light is this wisdom: low vibratory energy—rooted in division, negativity, fear, and stagnation—attracts its like, too. May ‘low-dim dark’ not win out, I say—not on our watch!
I pray we keep singing our sacred song, sparking our light into the collective field of Great Light. Like fish who, with all their might, leapt from the sea, gulping air, growing lungs to walk on land, this is the quantum leap humanity must risk: growing heart-lungs—growing an "in-this-together" interdependent, not separate, holy We!
"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."
— Edith Wharton
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Come Practice & Be In Community
Drop-in Meditation Today. All are welcome; no prior experience is needed—just an open tender heart.
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM: 20-min Guided Meditation: Calling on Your Future Self & 20-minute Metta Meditation Practice
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Conversations and Nourishment for the heart, for your practice of Meditation.
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Location: 778 West Frontage Road, Suite 111, Northfield, IL.
Gratitude, always.
Love, Wini
PS: More goodness below—two poems, three quotes, and things in between to spark your heart. And, THREE closing songs!!! Always made with ♥️.
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🌸 Two Poems. “I don’t write out of what I know; I write out of what I wonder.”― Lucille Clifton
Keeping Watch | Hafiz
In the morning
when I began to wake,
it happened again–
that feeling
that you, Beloved,
had stood over me all night
keeping watch,
that feeling
that as soon as I began to stir
you put your lips on my forehead
and lit the Holy Lamp
inside my heart.
When | Mary Oliver
When it’s over, it’s over, and we don’t know
any of us, what happens then.
So I try not to miss anything.
I think, in my whole life, I have never missed
The full moon
or the slipper of its coming back.
Or, a kiss.
Well, yes, especially a kiss.
🌿 What an incredible offering here,
this kiss,
this not-to-miss.
This not-to-miss, world full of exquisite tenderness and beauty, even though there is crumble and rubble. Today, in my tiny backyard, daffodils came up from hard ground.
🌸 Three Quotes | Bradford Keeney. Francis Weller. Marianne Williamson.
“Draw a halo on the bottom of each of your feet before you go to sleep. Think about how you are haloed from head to toe.”
— Bradford Keeney
It is in the inferior parts of our life that we will find redemption. This is, however, hard for us to accept in a culture driven by the demand for perfection. Still, it is the outcasts, those parts of us that we have sent to the edges of awareness, that we will recover our true humanity… We must welcome back all we have sent away and, in so doing, become a new annunciation. Imagine seeing ourselves this way. What a wild a freeing image, like Gabriel and Mary in the secret conversation about what is most holy. Invite them in, feed them, and be hospitable.”
―Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow
"Pray in the morning and kick ass in the afternoon"
🌸 Someone to Inspire | Kate Munger & The Threshold Choirs
Oh my, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts—okay, perhaps I only have three that I really commit to, where I look forward to every episode that drops—On Being with Krista Tippett; Dharma Lab with Richie Davidson and Dr. Cortland Dahl; and Emerging Form with journalist Christie Aschwanden and poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.
On Emerging Form’s latest episode, Christie and Rosemerry interview Kate Munger.
She is a woman I don't really know. A woman who somehow our two paths have crossed. A woman who I shared emails of care with, and here she is, being interviewed! It made me sit up straighter and pay attention—I love when that happens. I cannot tell you how much I LOVED this episode.
“The minute I started the Threshold Choir, I was aware I was fulfilling my assignment, and everything I had learned, every skill I had gained, was coming to be useful to me in this new effort,” — Kate Munger
So grateful that we have this opportunity to listen to such WOW beauty.
For over 40 years, Kate has harnessed the power of communal singing—from the bedsides of the dying to her latest work in prisons and democratic protests.
🎧 Give a listen: Episode 159 Kate Munger: Creating Community Through Song (30:57 min)
🌸🎶 Three Closing Songs | Music For Our Tender Hearts
🕯️This song was shared with me by my dear soul-friend, gorgeous yogini,Megan who is part of the retreat team forOne-Day Retreat Spring Renewal April 20th too!
As I Wake in the Morning(3:43 min) by Alexia Chellun. I listened to it on repeat over and over, my heart wept and wept, repeating a yes, yes, letting my heart breath free.
🕯️Sending You Light (5:13 min) by Melanie DeMore. This is a song I find myself playing often, when I need to remember ‘essence’, remember we each have a gift, a superpower, our job to do in the world, and when we do–WOW. Melanie DeMore offers this for us here.
I am sending you light
To heal you, to hold you
I am sending you light
To hold you in love
🕯️Aimee Ringle - Love I Will Go (4:49 min). Standing like a tree for love, what is ours to do, “here I am.” Let us learn from Love. Open and receptive to where Love leds us.
🌸🙏Dedicate Merit | In all Mystical traditions, there is a closing prayer – prayers of blessing, gratitude and protection.
May you find the courage to stand on the holy ground of your yes, Your holy sorrow, your light that is true, that is you!
May you stitch your Beauty into the fabric of this holy "We."
May all beings be safe and protected; this I wish for everyone.
May we awaken fully to help all beings.
– love, Wini
Have a blessed day 💖
🌸 PS. You can find all the newsletters archived on my website.
These newsletters will always be free—and if you appreciate receiving these weekly offerings grounded in tender-goodness please consider offering support through Buy Me a Coffee, 🌸 venmo (Winifred-Nimrod) 🌸 or zelle (wininim@gmail.com) 🌸
Thank you, I am a one-woman, two-finger typing, unfolding her thousand-petal bloom.
✨ May we bloom more Light.
💞 May we grow more Goodness for the healing of all.
🌎 May each of us thread our heart-tenderness, our Beauty, into the fabric of our planet.
….Until next week. 💖 ✨
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.
- Mary Oliver
Website:https://www.wininimrod.com/
