03.16.2026. For the Heart

Hello dear Friends,

There is NO in-person Metta Meditation Practice today,
I am out of town. See you next week! 
🕊️ ✨

Right here, right now, the sunlight streaks through the large pane-glass windows where I am sitting. This light—this late afternoon warmth—stretches long, touches everything, and seems to make everything, if even for just one long moment, okay, quiet, and safe.

Between Metta Letters each week, I gather quotes, poems, and offerings like finding treasures along a forest walk—or maybe they find me? It is a collection of human things—things that catch my heart. Things that sprout tears, things that vibrate true, things that arrive on an unheard wind against my skin, things that feel velvet-smooth and whisper a yes, yes, yes.

Here are a few that arrived this week like love letters slid under the door of my heart:

“If they keep hitting Tehran like this for another 10 days, nothing will remain.” — A resident, The New York Times, March 10, 2026

“You belong here, in this world. You have a gift for broader vision. Don’t squander it.” — Zivar Amrami

“Attention is the beginning of devotion." — Mary Oliver

“How can I begin anything new with all of yesterday in me?” — Leonard Cohen

“Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure.” — Rumi

And then I keep hearing this over and over—a voice wide and kind and real, like a "loving like a mother," or a dear friend, or a sacred trusted other, or a spiritual teacher, saying: “It is human.”

Perhaps this is the kindest offering for our hearts—a love letter to slide under each of our heart’s doors, a note on handmade pressed rose-petal paper, with these eight letters and one apostrophe handwritten: “It’s human.”

We all make mistakes; it’s human. We stumble into our lives, mess up, lose our way—it’s human. We all need care; we can’t go it alone. The heartaches of divorce, of death and loss, of cancer diagnoses and treatments, of body parts aging and breaking, of despair keeping us under the covers in bed, wintering until spring—we all need a listening heart and ear. We all need care. It’s human.

We are all messy and unskilled in claiming our voices, learning to stay with what’s real and true in our hearts. We all have wobbly legs, learning to stand in who we are—who we really are, not the photo-perfect one. We all tumble and fall over tree roots and over words; we all fail and fall. We all need help in finding our way, landing back on solid, heart-green ground.

“It’s human.” Perhaps these three words are some of the most sacred words of care. Words to stitch into a seam along our hearts. Words to keep close. Words that give us permission to be– messy and beautiful–human. The dark, worm rich humus of humanness required to bloom our most lovely, gorgeous, vulnerable and true, emerging form. 

🍃

Oh my, a polycrisis happening in our world; we each know this. I keep these words by Jack Kornfield close to my heart, and I hope they are a resource of care for you, too:

"It’s not the end of our story. Here we each are, living through difficulty and suffering—and we can love each other anyway. There is always time to have greatness of heart."

Right here, right now, the next true thing I know is this: we each do have the medicine– our bursts of light– is the medicine needed right now in our world.

See you next week,

Love, Wini

PS: More goodness below—two poems, three quotes, and things in between to spark your heart. And, one-hour long closing song!!! Always made with ♥️.

☕  Please consider supporting The Metta Letters by making a donation at Buy Me A Coffee here— or become a member— to support me and The Metta Letters on a monthly basis.

💌 Enjoying this newsletter’s spark? Please forward to a friend! Send on dollops of tenderness and goodness, They can sign up here

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🌸 Two Poems.  “Breathe-in experience, breathe-out poetry”  — Muriel Rukeyser

Life Is | Bokonon

life is a garden,

not a road

we enter and exit

through the same gate

wandering,

where we go matters less

than what we notice

Our Mutual Tender Existence | James Crews

Trading our goodbyes before bed,
my friend said, as we embraced,
We’re supposed to hold on longer
because things are so hard right now,
and so we wrapped our arms around
each other, and stayed that way
for several beats in the lamplit room
as darkness swept down across
the river below. And I thought, maybe
we are meant to hold onto everything
a little longer these days, savor
the cup of black coffee and really
taste it on the tongue, hold the gaze
of someone across the table, not
looking away. Stay out on the porch
as a warm breeze tousles my hair,
until a fox peeks out of the brush
then turns away, but not before I
have caught the flare of its tender
head, blaze of its eyes staring
back at me, then returning again
to the darkness that feels less
consuming, less dark, the longer
we sit inside it together.

🍃 Maybe an act of prayer, of praise, of resistance, is to hold onto this ‘everything’ a little longer these days

this tenderness
this world—a beauty like no other, even through war and woe
this air that fills our lungs
this heart, broken to feel more
this vow to live every day: Did I love?

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🌸 Three Quotes  | Pema Chödrön. Rebecca Solnit. Nisargadatta Maharaj. 

“We are at a time when old systems and ideas are being questioned and falling apart, and there is a great opportunity for something fresh to emerge. I have no idea what that will look like and no preconceptions about how things should turn out, but I do have a strong sense that the time we live in is a fertile ground for training in being open-minded and open-hearted. If we can learn to hold this falling apart–ness without polarizing and without becoming fundamentalist, then whatever we do today will have a positive effect on the future.”  

—  Pema Chödrön

"Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That's where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go. They also call it transforming the unknown into the known, but it’s more like being comfortable with the unknown."

— Rebecca Solnit

“Love says: ‘I am everything.' Wisdom says: 'I am nothing.' Between the two my life flows.”

— Nisargadatta Maharaj

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🌸 Food For The Heart | 3 things: New York Times Article Tara Brach recording 

🎧 A talk with Tara Brach, Fear as a Pathway to Loving Presence – Night Travelers.This came my way from a friend I met on silent retreat, she shared, “I thought I would share. It feels very helpful for the tumultuous times we are in.” 

Tara explores how the fears that shape our lives—anxiety, shame, trauma, and the fear of loss—can become portals to what she calls the “fearless heart” or bodhicitta. 

🧠✨ Have you heard about this mind-heart provoking podcast: The Telepathy Tapes. If not, give it a listen—it’s super powerful. This podcast explores the "impossible," from telepathic autistic individuals to NDEs and energy healing.

Season 1 explores non-speaking individuals with autism whose telepathic abilities challenge our understanding of the mind. 

Season 2 expands into near-death experiences, animal communication, and savant abilities, offering a rare glimpse into consciousness beyond the brain.

🌸 Did You Hear? | An Exciting Save-the-Date Saturday, April 25! 

Join us for a special two-hour book talk and Q&A session. Julie Burns Walker will be sharing insights on "The Unfoldment of Purpose in Uncertain Times."

Her new book, Unlock Your Purpose, is a groundbreaking exploration of human potential and healing. 

Julie brings over 33 years of experience as a medical intuitive, having worked with clients from across the globe to help them discover their true path.

📅 When: Saturday, April 25

📍 Where: Body, Breath, Mind Studio. (The Office of Marilyn Perlman & Wini Nimrod) 778 West Frontage Road, Suite 111, Northfield, IL

✨ Reserve Your Spot Early: Space is limited to 30 people. 

By putting your name on the list now, you will be notified first and given the chance to register before this event is opened to the general public. 🕊️ email me

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🌸 Closing Song | Music For Our Tender Hearts 

🕯️Iranian Jazz–Persian Soul Instrumental Fusion (1:12:07 min)

Oh my, this gorgeous music came my way from my dear friend Leslye. She is a brilliant Spiritual Director, always uncovering sacred treasures and sharing them. 

Here is one: an hour-long piece for the soul that blends Western jazz structures with traditional Persian melodies, instruments, and improvisational techniques.

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🌸🙏Dedicate Merit | In all Mystical traditions, there is a closing prayer – prayers of blessing, gratitude and protection. 

May you be gentle with yourself when you stumble, knowing ‘its human.’

May you feel a quiet warmth in your heart today, 

reminding you that you are safe and you are enough.

May you offer yourself the same "sacred permission" you give to others—to be messy, to be beautiful, and to bloom in your own time.

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 💖

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🌸  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/