06.16.2025. Precious Gems
Hello dear Friends,
“The cosmos is filled with precious gems.
I want to offer a handful of them to you this morning.
Each moment you are alive is a gem.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
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Perhaps we may know this in our bones: "each moment you are alive is a gem"—yet somehow we don't. Yes, I know we think we have time, and "think" is truly the keyword here. The mind is complicated; it tells us all sorts of crazy-making, complex stories that muddle our hearts and bodies, unmoor us from the taproot of our true belonging, preventing us from taking a good seat of understanding in the briefness of this one precious and holy life.
Oh, and so we go along until something up close and personal hits us on the head: the death of a loved one, a somber diagnosis, a heartbreak that shatters us into a million tiny pieces. These are the moments in life that stop us in our tracks, bring us to tears, to our knees in prayer, or sometimes leave us frozen in fear. This is when we learn the forgiving lesson of “and”—when we stumble into how grace is given, how to love our life as it truly is: part gorgeous, part disaster; part heartbreakingly lovely, part heartbreakingly raw despair.
This is when we learn how to love the whole, stark, holy deal of living—each alive morning, a handful of precious gems. This is when we learn how to love this world as it is—burning joy, burning sorrow, and unbearable beauty blooming out of forgiving ash.
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Join us Today– Mindfulness of Breath & Metta Meditation Practice
All are welcome, no prior experience needed—just bring an open heart.
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM: Drop-in Meditation Practice
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Conversations on the Practice of Meditation
Location: 1765 Glenview Road, Glenview (in the Patio Shops)
Donations are gratefully accepted.
A bow of gratitude we are here together,
Wini
Scroll Below–2 poems, 3 quotes, 3 closing songs, and goodness between. Made with ♥️.
💌 Know someone who needs a little goodness for their heart? Please share! If this was forwarded to you, subscribe for your own copy
🌸 Two Poems to Share
Delicate Light | Rolf Jacobsen
It’s so delicate, the light.
And there’s so little of it.
The dark is huge.
Just delicate needles, the light,
In an endless night.
And it has such a long way to go
through such desolate space.
So let’s be gentle with it.
Cherish it.
So it will come again
in the morning.
We hope.
Please | Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
If you are one who has practice
meeting the pain of the world,
we need you. Right now we need you
to teach us it is possible to swallow
what is weighty and still be able to rise.
We need you to remind us we can
be furious and scared and near feral
over injustice and still thrill at the taste
of a strawberry, ripe and sweet,
can still meet a stranger and shake
their hand, believing in their humanness.
We need you to show us how
we, too, can fall into the darkest,
unplumbed pit and learn there
a courage and beauty
we could never learn from the light.
If you have drowned in sorrow
and still have somehow found
a way to breathe, please, lead us.
You are the one with the crumbs
we need, the ones we will use to find
our way back to the home of our hearts.
🌿 We need each other, and our world is in need of each of us…
Save-the-Date! Join us for "The Conversation is Truth and Soul" with the luminous poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer here in Chicago, on Saturday, September 27, 2025, at Valley Lo Club (9 am - 3 pm, lunch included).
Registration opens soon; be the first to know and add your name to our list – spaces will fill quickly!
🌸 Three Quotes | Jack Kornfield. Nick Cave. Ram Dass.
“In the end, just three things matter: How well we lived. How well we have loved. How well we let go.” — Jack Kornfield
“It took a devastation to understand the idea of mortal value, and it took a devastation to find hope. Unlike cynicism, hopefulness is hard-earned, makes demands upon us, and can often feel like the most indefensible and lonely place on Earth. Hopefulness is not a neutral position either. It is adversarial. It is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism. ( Read full offering here) ” — Nick Cave, The Red Hand Files #190
🌿 A Powerful do-not-miss watch. Nick Cave on Hope, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, August 14, 2024 (1:57 min). In a world where hope is needed, the warrior emotion needed says, “It says the world and its inhabitants have value and are worth defending. It says the world is worth believing in.”
“When you slouch, you are trying to hide your heart, protecting it by slumping over. But when you sit upright but relaxed in the posture of meditation, your heart is uncovered. Your entire being is exposed - to yourself, first of all, but to others as well.” —Chögyam Trungpa Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior
🌿 What if we just let our hearts out? Unzipping all those protective 'puffy' down coats we've layered over them to protect, to defend.
What if we took a seat inside, letting our elegance align our hearts and spines?
And what if we knew the truth of who we are—a noble being of great light —I wonder what our complex and holy-tender world would look like from that view.
“When I asked Maharajji how to meditate, he said,
“Meditate like Christ.”
I said, “Maharajji, how did Christ meditate?”
He became very quiet and closed his eyes.
After a few minutes,
he had a blissful expression on his face
and a tear trickled down his cheek.
He opened his eyes and said,
“He lost himself in Love.”
Try the meditation of losing yourself in love…”
— Ram Dass
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🌸 Put Your Name on Our Priority List! ✍️ | Upcoming Retreat with Wini
“Even a short period of retreat is a benevolent rest, a stepping outside of busy daily rounds, and our ordinary identity. Released from the tyranny of time, we are invited into the reality of the present, to see the mystery of life anew.”
— Jack Kornfield
A Sacred Pause for Women
Join me for an intimate, soul-nourishing weekend designed to reestablish the ground of your being. This retreat is a dedicated space for holy silence, sacred teachings, profound stillness, and deep nourishment, helping you reconnect with your inner wisdom-teacher and the intimacy of your own beauty residing within your heart.
Expect a weekend where time softens and holiness settles deep within.
Save the Dates: September 11-14, 2025
This exclusive gathering for a small circle of just 10-12 women will unfold at Soulful Prairie in Woodstock, IL (just 70 minutes north of Chicago).
Secure Your Spot!
Space is very limited. To get early access to registration and be among the first to know all the details and pricing, sign up for the priority list here.
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🌸 Closing Songs 🎶 | Silence & Calling in the Ancestors of Light
Three songs to close this newsletter filled with beauty and goodness– I came across these songs as I was prepping for Tuesday evening's upcoming Healing Vessel, “The Conversation Tonight is Silence” where Silence asks us to be a wide open listener, to be a wide open heart.
First song is by Charles Pasi - Silence (3:08 min)
Next song by Bill Callahan, One Fine Morning (5:42 min)
And this song here, Fire Meditation Music - Calling in Ancestors of Light—those who lived in truth, love, compassion, and strength. Support And Guidance.
Let your bones soak in this song while you walk, write, wander in your garden, give a long-listen. Ancestors Of Light by Chantress Seba (21:13 min)
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In Mystical traditions, it is a great practice to offer chants and prayers of blessing and protection.
“May your cup be filled with all of the riches of Love.
May you be blessed with a tender-soft heart,
and become a sweet place of refuge.
Kind heart. Kind breath.
May you love this world as it is —
burning joy, burning sorrow, unbearable beauty
blooming out of forgiving ash.
May all beings be safe and protected.”
Have a blessed day,
Love, Wini 💖
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✨ may we bloom more Light together.
💞 may we grow more Goodness for the healing of all
🌎 may we stitch more heart-tenderness into the fabric of our planet.
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….Until next week. 💖 ✨
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.
- Mary Oliver
