04.06.2026. A Plethora of Sparks
Hello dear Friends,
"The Longest Journey you will ever take is from your Head to your Heart.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
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Overnight, green has popcorned, leafing out worship and praise over everything brown: brown earth, brown limbs of trees, brown twigs of unpruned roses and hydrangea bushes, brown mud, and the decaying debris of last year's fallen leaves.
This brown mixing with spring's flame—I must steady my heart—the forsythias burning with yellow, the magnolias weighted with a million tender blooms making a stand for vulnerability and love, and the tiny, star-shaped bluebells nodding in prayer, unexpectedly popping up everywhere like umbrellas on a rainy day, running wild to take cover under trees, across lawns, and through my heart. This is spring's holy ground, her spark of bloom, reminding us that out of the narrow dark, out of hard ground, we rise again.
This sparks a fire in my heart to practice, to do my inner work, to make a stand against my inner critic—the voice inside we all know well, that seduces, cajoles, can be downright demanding and mean, and halts our bloom. This self-loathing voice that thickens the threads of shame and negates our beauty and light. Like God, there are a thousand names for this harsh voice, this inner demon, this tyrannical one. Some call it super ego, the opponent, the editor, the judge, and jailer. Ignatius Loyola called it the Enemy of Human Nature; Buddha called it Mara; Jesus called it Satan; my meditation teacher called it the Vampire Lover who whispers seductive lies, lures us with unseen soft kisses, so we will do its bidding of harm.
Either way, whatever you call this force that creates suffering, blinding doubt, and feeds the erroneous belief we are separate from God, I am starting my own internal "No Kings Inside" protest march. Would you like to join me?
After posting in last week’s Metta Letter that the organizers for "No Kings" reported eight million people worldwide showed up to march against a president, his policies, and administration's actions, it struck me—I thought, "Well, isn't this funny? I have a tyrant and administration inside of me full of policies and misuse of power that I do not agree with at ALL. This must stop." A voice rose up—I have no idea from where. Maybe she arose out of over thirty years of devotion to awakening and practice. Maybe she rose out of aging and just bone tired, "Enough is enough. This is my life, fleeting, precious, and brief. You (the opponent) can no longer dine on it!" Maybe what arose was the awareness that the inside is a reflection of the outside: "As within, so without." Maybe what arose was this painful truth that all tyrants exploit our beauty and use humiliation and shame to maintain rule.
Now, this becomes a flaming burning bush, a holy ground, where we take off our shoes and make a stand. As my meditation teacher would repeatedly and fiercely say, "Know where you stand and stand there." This is a good place to collectively stand. To refuse even the smallest entry of our internal cruel and callous administrations rule over our inner landscapes, over our tender hearts, adding more poisonous energy to this breathing collective energy body, the unitive field of consciousness.
Changing our relationship to these inner voices is poignant, and my protest march is on and happening now! My placards read: "Down With Dim, Up With Shine!" "Tears & Tender Rule," "No More Hiding," "Care Vs. Combat," "Stop the Inner War." I wonder what yours would say?
This permission to author our life, our light, to quiet and bless our inner critics, for they at one time helped us maintain safety and survive, I bow in gratitude to each and every one of them. I am full-on behind this falling in love with our own gifts, I say yes, yes, yes! This is spring's energy anointing light, the world is hard enough—what a poignant time to claim and protest for our light! I say, let’s march.
“A woman awake — a woman with a fierce and awesome commitment — is a fearsome confrontation to our mediocrity and casualness. Most of us, myself included, would rather defend ourselves against our own potential greatness, because we know the sacrifices that living such greatness would require.”
— Regina Sara Ryan, The Woman Awake
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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-minute Guided Practice Working With Pain & Discomfort and 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, a gorgeous closing song!!! 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. “Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.” — Plutarch
The Temple Bell | Matsuo Bashō (translated by Robert Bly)
The temple bell stops
but the sound keeps coming
out of the flowers
The Great Ones| Kathleen Hirsch
for J. Rossman
The great ones are often past sixty.
They are women
who dress like sparrows
in layers of brown and grey –
wool and muslin and taffeta
who surround themselves
with worn quilts
and carry arcane
recipes for wonder.
I have known these women.
Despite appearances,
they are the ones who will save us.
They see
with the accuracy of owls
and are always equipped
with a threaded needle.
Unlike the rest of us.
They look for the poetry.
in the torpor
of stale dreams and old cash registers,
and whatever else they find.
They show you
how everything that you are
is stitched into
the heartbeat of
beauty.
🍃 Did You Hear? Nice Ladies Change the World.
Last Monday during conversation after meditation, Rebecca Solnit’s interview with the NYT came into the room. A powerful listen about hope and the future.
When she was asked who would counter Trump, Solnit quoted Thich Nhat Hanh, “the next Buddha will be the Sangha. ” As she puts it, "Maybe the community is the next hero."
I love this, she also noted that changing the world looks more like caregiving than war, observing that the most important work in the world is often done by “nice ladies.” Tending to people is the real work: a model of change rooted in care rather than combat.
To this, I offer a yes, a holy amen.
🌸 Three Quotes | Vanessa Zuisei Goddard. Oriah Mountain Dreamer. Joan Chittister.
“Regardless of how far we think we’ve strayed or how many times we’ve fallen on the ground, in each and every moment we have the opportunity to use that same ground to stand.”
“What if becoming who and what we truly are happens not through striving and trying but by recognizing and receiving the people and places and practices that offer us the warmth of encouragement when we need to unfold? How would this shape the choices you make about how to spend today?
— Oriah Mountain Dreamer from Prelude to "The Dance"
“We know now that everything in life will not go our way. We will not simply get what we want or avoid what we do not. And we will know when the price is worth paying or not. The point is that no one escapes suffering. It is part of the rhythm of life, part of the process of living. The question then is, for what are we willing to suffer?”
🍃 What a question to live into, “for what are you willing to suffer?”
Mine, what arises right here, right now, like a silky hair braid—is these three: tenderness, the Holy and Love (as cliché as it sounds). Not love as a feeling—that comes and goes—but love as a state of being, rooted in the dark rich humus of the Holy, and a tenderness, shy and bold as spring.
🌸 More Sparks of Inspiration | Talkin’ Bout A Revolution
✨Do You Need Some Pure Goodness? Watch These Kids Sing!
Talkin' Bout A Revolution: Our Future in Harmony. Watch the PS22 Chorus turn a classic Tracy Chapman song into a beautiful anthem of hope. This is what extraordinary sounds like, these kids!
✨ Do You Love Lists?
Here is one:The Most Spiritually Literate Films of 2025. This is Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat’s "Spirituality & Practice" roundup of the best films of the year.
✨ Oh My! This Is A Public Message Sent By Our President.
This is a social media post not to be ignored. Regardless of your politics, this post from the President of the United States may be the least Christian thing ever written by any president. Listen Here
🌸 Something to Know About For Men | "Gender, Grief, and Gentleness"
Last fall, while hosting Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, I met a truly lovely man named Z’Ryah.
Z’Ryah is gifted at facilitating spaces for men to cultivate more honest, intimate, and loving relationships with themselves. I am so happy to support the "bloom" of his latest beauty-work—an upcoming offering for men: Gender, Grief & Gentleness.
Co-led with his friend Daniel, this gathering is designed for male-bodied, male-socialized, and male-identified people who long for a deeper connection to their own hearts.
When: Friday, May 29th & Saturday, May 30th
Where: Indian Boundary Park, Chicago
Learn More: Click here to visit the website
"The premise of this offering is that by teaching men how to have more emotionally intimate relationships with themselves and each other, it will change how men relate to their friends, loved ones, colleagues, employees, strangers, and the world."
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🌸 Closing Song | Not A Single Word Spoken, Volumes of Hope-Beauty Spoken
This song seemed so fitting this week, with spring rejoicing outside our doors and two sacred events just occurring: Easter and Passover, reminding us of the exodus and rising we each do—the coming through dark into light and the power of love that abides in all things.
In this song, not one word is spoken, yet a great novel opens in me, a page-turner I do not want to end. It is as if I am reading a great love story about the human heart, its great sufferings and losses, and the abiding, abundant beauty and hope underlying all of it. It is a dialogue with the Holy.
🎧 Max Richter’s “On the Nature of Daylight” (7:19 min) Watch on YouTube here (7:00 min)
If you need a profound listen while walking in the woods or spring-cleaning your yard, give the full album a listen.
A Note: Richter wrote and recorded the original album, The Blue Notebooks, in 2003 as a "protest album" in response to the buildup of the Iraq War. The track can also be found on the album Exiles.(25 songs ,1 hour 8 min of gorgeousness)
🌸🙏Dedicate Merit | In all Mystical traditions, there is a closing prayer – prayers of blessing, gratitude and protection.
May my heart be opened.
May all that is broken within me be healed.
May I awaken to this moment, just as it is.
May all hearts be opened to one another.
— Anonymous
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. 💖 ✨
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Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.
- Mary Oliver
Website:https://www.wininimrod.com/
