06.09.2025. Bigness of Our Spirit
Hello dear Friends,
No In-Person Metta Today
— a continuing education day
…see you all in-person next week
🌿
One Reason to Show Up
the whole world is burning
and the only way to bring it water,
the bucket of you
What if we recognized the bigness of our Spirit, and stood in her? I wonder what the world would look like. Forget the world—I wonder what each of us would look like: just being ourselves in our unstoppable glow, the shine of our greatness of heart, the quiet brilliance of our Soul.
What if we each truly knew we were the holy water needed to soothe our burning, broken world? Not just a part-way knowing, but the whole holy-deal knowing, the in-the-marrow-of-our-bones knowing, the "I am" Beloved knowing.
But perhaps you, like me, refuse even its slightest entry. And perhaps you, like me, are on the back half of life—yet regardless of years—there is no time for any of us not to unearth, own and follow our innate sacred impulses. So I say to you: follow what is true and orchid-soft to you. There is still time to find out!
A bow of gratitude,
Wini
Scroll Below–2 poems, 3 quotes, 1 closing song, and goodness between. Made with ♥️.
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🌸 Two Poems to Share
Poem | Mizuta Masahide, 17th-century Japanese poet
My house burned down.
I can now see better
The rising moon.
Meditation on a Grapefruit | Craig Arnold
To wake when all is possible
before the agitations of the day
have gripped you
To come to the kitchen
and peel a little basketball
for breakfast
To tear the husk
like cotton padding a cloud of oil
misting out of its pinprick pores
clean and sharp as pepper
To ease
each pale pink section out of its case
so carefully without breaking
a single pearly cell
To slide each piece
into a cold blue china bowl
the juice pooling until the whole
fruit is divided from its skin
and only then to eat
so sweet
a discipline
precisely pointless a devout
involvement of the hands and senses
a pause a little emptiness
each year harder to live within
each year harder to live without
🌿 This is the poem that chose itself for yesterday's Metta Sunday Meditation. It was an exquisite day of play and beauty, of practice and heart-opening sharing.As you read, “Meditation on a Grapefruit”, what word or phrase catches your heart, or calls to you? Let that word be a guide of sorts, an anchor for your day.
🌸 Three Quotes | Ram Dass. Adrienne Maree Brown. Thich Nhat Hanh.
“The shadow is the greatest teacher for how to come to the light.” — Ram Dass, One Liners: A Mini-Manual for Spiritual Life
“We need movements rooted in love right now, movements powered not by difference and exclusion and punishment, but by common ground, compassion, humility, healthy boundaries, patience and healing.” — Adrienne Maree Brown
“To live, we must die every instant. We must perish again and again in the storms that make life possible.” —Thich Nhat Hanh, Fragrant Palm Leaves: Journals 1962-1966
🌿 🎧 Listen to Thich Nhat Hanh speak on braving the storms of big emotionsThe Way to Cope with Storms of Life (Click on english subtitles) Remember: emotions—despair, fear, or hatred—can feel overwhelming, but they are impermanent, like a passing storm.
What to do when caught in a storm? Recognize: "This is only an emotion," and it will pass.
Thay offers 3 things: Focus on the lower abdomen (energy center below the navel) as a stable anchor. Deep breathing (15-20 minutes) can help. Daily practice is crucial.
We are a tree standing by ourselves braving the storm of big emotions. At those moments, we suffer so much.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
🌸 Somethings to Inspire | Books. Documentary. Podcast. June 🌼🪻🐝🐛🌺
Sweet offerings to graze on during your summering long days.
Last week I posted about Krista Tippett's "On Being" new offering: "Hope Portal" Session 2 is out! 🎧 Tune in to "Put Your Hands on the Future," with adrienne maree brown (14:00 min). Discover the power of radical imagination; as Brown states, "Hope is an act of imagination with real-world consequences." She closes with a powerful thought for our current times: "We are in a time where everything is falling apart and everything is possible, and that is exciting!"
A not-to-miss 🎥 “The Quilters” (1:28 min trailer) an award-winning short documentary (32-minutes), men in a Missouri maximum-security prison design and sew beautiful, personalized quilts for foster children. Poignant. Heartwarming. Beautiful. A group of incarcerated men in a maximum-security prison quilting offering comfort and hope. Giving Back.
A book to keep near, 📚 to reread: Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer. This book keeps landing in my office, brought by different people—always good wisdom to listen to and share. A good book to gift-on.
📚 Another book has graced my path, arriving from two unrelated sources, yet it whispered a sweet note of remembrance directly to my soul: The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl. This is a deeply observant, poetic journey through the changing seasons of a Tennessee backyard, exquisitely written.
🌸 Something Sacred ✨ | Upcoming Retreat: A Sacred Pause for Women
…where time softens and holiness settles deep within.
Save the Dates: September 11-14, 2025
Join me for a weekend dedicated to holy play, profound stillness, and deep nourishment, helping you reconnect with your inner wisdom and the intimacy of your own heart.
This intimate gathering for a small circle of women will unfold at Soulful Prairie in Woodstock, IL (just 70 minutes north of Chicago). Expect a weekend where time softens and holiness settles deep within.
Space is limited to just 10-12 women.
To get early access to registration
and be among the first to know details and pricing
sign up for the priority list here.
🌿
🌸 Closing Song 🎶 | Follow the Heart
A song to get lost in, to begin with, to follow your heart. ✨ Give a listen: I was just introduced to Yaima's ethereal soundscapes—music for the soul, inviting us to connect inward to a deep resonance of peace, calm, wonder, and inexplicable magic—the breath breathing the divine into song.
Lyrics:
Like a lantern in the dark
Follow on now, follow your heart
The mountain high, the valley low
The edges caught by moonlight
Like a lantern pulsing heart
The balanced rhythm, air in my lungs
Sweeping up the mountain high
Returning wholly to the divine
Like a lantern, finally breathe
Imagine all this, finally free
The mind will open, drift on the wind
Can you feel it?
Time to begin
Begin
Like a lantern
Listen on YouTube (4:39 min) or Spotify (4:35 min)
🌿
“May you open to the inexplicable bloom
that always resides inside of you.
May you love this world as it is
part burning joy, part burning sorrow
May you allow kindness to bring you
to your knees, open you to prayer, be hope.”
Have a blessed day,
Love, Wini 💖
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….Until next week. 💖 ✨
