03.30.2026. Shafts of Light
Hello dear Friends,
I opened my email and found this quote:
“What on earth can we do to make this sad and beautiful world a little softer for everyone?” — Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places.
I clicked to the next email and there, immediately following, was this post. It was as if my emails were in a dialogue with each other—a question offered and an answer given:
“We must remind ourselves that, though our lives are small and our acts seem insignificant, we are generative elements of this universe, and we create meaning with each act that we perform or fail to perform.” — Kent Nerburn, Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace.
🍃
Yes, this instrument of peace– the power of our generative spark, this current of energy that vibrates into the collective energy field from every small act offered—matters. Every kind word, every gesture, every small prayer... every small votive candle lit, followed by the whisper of someone’s name in need of care, every trembling prayer… matters.
Every spark of inspiration flamed, kept alive, and offered to warm another’s heart, matters. It is the generative breath—the element that softens the hard edges of our world’s nervous system.
Every footstep, tiny or large, marching down every small-town Main Street and every big-city boulevard; every voice standing against President Trump and his policies and actions; every chant—small, loud, or silent: No ICE. Why War? Minab Massacre. No Kings since 1776… matters. Organizers for "No Kings" said eight million people took part. Oh my, this is a lot of feet walking, "kissing the earth," as Thich Nhat Hanh would say. Roughly 16,000,000! This is a lot of generative sparks adding to the collective field of unitive consciousness. Holy amen, this matters.
The primary scripture I keep turning towards in this "sad and beautiful," troubled time is music, poetry, and walks in the woods as cathedral; prayers in the shape of tears shared with besties or with random strangers in movie theaters—holding Kleenex tissues and popcorn, weeping together. This is goodness on steroids, sparking remembering of our shared humanity, sparking the realization that we are part of something much, much bigger—this generative field of universal energy Nerburn refers to. It sparks the truth that each of us matters; our shared aches, joys, and sorrows are the path to happiness.
Not "happy-happy," as my meditation teacher would say, but a quiet, still happiness. An energy of happiness that rides on a warm wind, is a soft shaft of light that slips under the doorsills of our hearts, wraps us in tender sweetness, in tears and kindness through storms, breaks, and tumbles; through the rubble of wars inside and out, as life goes on.
This is the route I know: this ride into vast space, into the poignancy of living a human life so precious and fleeting. For some thirty-four years, I’ve been sitting with gorgeous, tender souls and have heard the echoes, the aches, the threads of the same longing love prayer—maybe said using a variety of different syllables, like all the different names of God, but the same aspiration (mine too): to open, and open, and open the heart to the best of one’s ability to what living gives us; to greet everything as gift, as grace, as teacher. How could Mary Oliver not come to mind? “Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.”
This inspires my own practices.
An owl speaks this morning
My husband and I, still
in bed, dawn rises, listen—
this wonder.
🍃
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 ‘Welcoming What Is’ Meditation & 20-minute Metta Meditation Practice
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Conversations and Nourishment for the heart, for your practice of Meditation.
Dāna: Pay What You Can. (suggested donation $10-$40 )
Location: 778 West Frontage Road, Suite 111, Northfield, IL.
Gratitude, always.
Love, Wini
PS: More sparks of goodness below—two poems, three quotes, and things in between to inspire the heart. And, three closing songs!!! Always made with ♥️.
☕ Please consider supporting The Metta Letters by making a donation at Buy Me A Coffee here to support The Metta Letters on a monthly basis 💌
🌸 Two Poems. “Poetry can break open locked chambers of possibility, restore numbed zones to feeling, recharge desire.” — Adrienne Rich
For What Ails Us | Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Wini weeps as she tells me “everyone is so broken,”
and a small shrine appears in the tear on her cheek.
I kneel inside it as it slips to her chin.
My throat clenches, my own heart widens,
enlivened by how deeply Wini cares,
and somehow her heartache begins to mend
my own grief for this cruel and callous world.
More than any beauty. More than the uplifting song
of the red wing black bird trilling through the open window.
More than the scent of basil and lemon.
More than the dark silhouette of two herons winging
through the nectarine sunset. Wini’s tears heal me.
Shared ache becomes its own medicine.
No. Not the ache. The medicine is in the love that fuels
the ache. It feels so right, I forget to wish it didn’t hurt.
Let No One Say | Brenda Peddigrew
Let no one say it is easy
to turn within and listen
to your own voice
lost for decades
Or perhaps most of your life
if ever heard at all.
Let No One Say that it’s not work
to go against the tide
of whatever, however you live
to listen, to trust, to believe
that voice.
Everything in the world, except
the stalwart trees
and the earth’s silence, which–
If you notice– surround everything–
everything–will push you away
from the patient, soft inner voice,
waiting for you. Just that.
But, if you listen and believe, that voice,
that one alone
leads you home.
🍃 Oh I just recently learned about Brenda Peddigrew poetry through two dear friends from my meditation training days, Awakening Into Presence. They suggested, “There is a book of poetry, Marrow of Light by Brenda Peddigrew, that you might enjoy.”
Yes, it is gorgeous! I have since reached out to Brenda, a Sister of Mercy for over fifty years, to thank her for her deep listening, for her writing down what she would say was “given.”
Her response to me, “Thanks so much, Wini! No...no workshops or even poetry readings now. I am approaching 80 and sinking back into a very quiet life...that said, poems continue to come and I am sure that there will be one final book before too much longer.”
Why does this touch
so deeply, this sinking
back into a quiet
life, poems still
coming.
🍃
🌸 Three Quotes | Maria Popova. Eileen Caddy. Naomi Levy.
“Life will break you,” Louise Erdrich wrote in her passionate insistence that “you are here to risk your heart.” It can happen with a shattering, or with a thousand small fissures, but the great paradox — the great salvation — is that every time it happens, you live to see you are unbreakable.”
— Maria Popova, The Marginalian Corrective for a Broken Heart
“These are crucial times and each soul is needed in its rightful place. It is like a vast jigsaw puzzle being put together; there is a right place for every tiny piece. Are you in your rightful place? Only you will know. Do you feel you blend in perfectly with the whole and that you do not create any jarring or discordant note?
Peace, harmony and tranquility must be within you to stabilise you and bring you into alignment with what is about to take place. Therefore it is necessary to be still and find that peace within so that nothing and no one can disturb it. Be like an anchor, strong and steady, so that no storm without can affect you or shift you from your rightful place. Hold fast and know that all is very, very well. Let not your heart be troubled, but put your whole trust, faith and security in Spirit.”
― Eileen Caddy, weekly inspirationFindhorn Foundation
“There is a Jewish tradition that a single visit to someone's sickbed takes away one sixtieth of their illness. The ancient sages understood that just being in the presence of another human being can lift a person up.”
— Naomi Levy, To Begin Again
🍃 One of my most beloved teachers asked her teacher, a well-known rabbi, this question: “After sitting with people for decades, what have you found most healing?”
He replied, “Calling someone by their name.”
🌸 More Sparks of Inspiration | Two Instagram Shares & One Movie
✨ Instructions Before Visiting Earth. (Mark, my husband sent my way)
A very sweet Instagram post sent my way from Mark, my husband—and The Metta Letter’s #1 fan! This one is not to be missed; Give a watch here. It’s a poem by James McCrae.
✨ Brother Richard Hendrick, a Capuchin Franciscan living in Ireland.
He is best known for his poem "Lockdown," which went viral during the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking here about death.
✨ “The Last Ecstatic Days” a film about Ethan Sisser
A man with brain cancer in search of community, and the hospice doctor who gives up everything to honor his dying wish. As Ethan begins livestreaming his final journey on social media, thousands of people around the world join him to celebrate his courage.
“Hypnotic” –NPR
Watch Trailer Here (2:31 min)
“This film blew me away. You just can't help but love Ethan the moment he opens his TikTok and invites you into his life. What was so powerful was that it's not the Dalai Lama or Ram Dass. When someone like Ethan opens up so deeply, I realize I can do that too. Ethan became a teacher for me. I hope everyone will see this extraordinary film." — ROSHI JOAN HALIFAX, Ph.D, Buddhist Teacher & Founder Unaya Zen Center
"Death is our friend precisely because it brings us into absolute and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is love."
— Rainer Maria Rilke
🍃
🌸 Closing Songs | Three Blessing Songs For Your Heart
🎧 Loreena McKennitt, "Dante's Prayer" (7:11 min).
🎧 The Lost Words Blessing- Spell Songs (3:26 min). “It is offered both in hope and light, and in grief for the losses and dark times yet to come.”
Walk through the world with care, my love
And sing the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
🎧 'Let My love Be Heard' –VOCES8 (5:06 min).
A Prayer' by Alfred Noyes
Angels, where you soar
Up to God’s own light,
Take my own lost bird
On your hearts tonight;
And as grief once more
Mounts to heaven and sings,
Let my love be heard
Whispering in your wings.
🍃
🌸🙏Dedicate Merit | In all Mystical traditions, there is a closing prayer – prayers of blessing, gratitude and protection.
May you find a soft place to land amidst the hard edges of the world.
May you know that your presence is a generative spark of love.
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 sparks of tender-goodness please consider offering your 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/
