08.25.2025. Butterflies and Heart Dents
Hello dear Friends,
He sent it four times. Each time, his heart, with a persistence, said, “This time I hope it will come through.” Each time, due to technology glitches—a sophistication necessary to send something beyond his ninety-year-old pay grade—the attachment did not come through, deemed unopenable. This article needed the sender's permission.
The beauty here is not the hope of sharing this read, "The Caterpillar Giving Birth to the Fire to the Butterfly" (even though the title alone ignites my heart, longing to transform by flame, by love)—the story he was attempting to send to me, to pass on to you, the Metta Newsletter community.
Perhaps, the true story here is one about warmth and care, about a heart that is poised to persevere—the sending again and again, even though, like my dear friend, he did not know if the article would open or not. Even so, he attempted. Perhaps this is what primes our hearts and what is required to meet the obstacles in our lives—on the blank page, on our meditation cushion, or even just in making our bed in the morning, or not. Perhaps this is how we stay alive in this world that both shreds our hearts and touches our cheeks with butterfly kisses.
“How We Spend Our Days Is How We Spend Our Lives.” — Annie Dillard
“What you feed grows.” — Ram Dass
With great interest and care, we begin, we start looking at our lives, devoted to living life as a holy practice (practice means exactly that: not perfect, but tumbling into don’t know-open waters). We offer, we see, we wait, we get down on our knees, we arduously pray, and we relentlessly show up again and again. We put our heart tears and offerings into the flame, knowing the only way is through. There are no shortcuts to awakening heartbreaking kindness and love; we go into the fires of living life, the painful, messy, muddled "goo" of the caterpillar's chrysalis, and sit in the gravity of it all. Silently say, yes please this too—the hot-heat that combusts and consumes and the consistent warmth that grows our bud into a thousand-petal bloom, births our butterfly wings that flutter sunshine, touch and land on each other's bowed shoulders.
P.S. The fifth attempt. Tom’s story did come through, ferried to me on his butterfly wings. Read here
Come Join Me Today
We will begin our time with a guided 7-point posture into 12 minute silent meditation, followed by a Metta meditation practice.
Drop-in Meditation Monday
All are welcome; no prior experience is needed—just bring an open heart.
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM: Guided & Metta 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.
Gratitude we are here together,
Love, Wini
Scroll below: 2 Poems, 3 Quotes, 1 Podcast. 1 Event Not-to-Miss, 1 Closing Song, and holy 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
In Response to a Student Asking Where to Find Poetry During Difficult Times | Laure-Anne Bosselaar
It’s in morning’s first light, already throwing shadows
on beds, factories, orchards, & graves,
& in the gravelly you have a good day now, sweetie
from a diner’s old waitress.
In puddle mud on a child’s new rubber boots.
In an apple’s freckles at the farmer’s market.
Or in a rowboat its oars oily at the handles
from all the buoyant escapes.
In your friend’s voice. Or silence.
In all those years it takes for a barn to collapse.
In the terrified tenderness of a first kiss.
In a last kiss too.
Meditations in an Emergency | Cameron Awkward-Rich
I wake up & it breaks my heart. I draw the blinds & the thrill of rain breaks my heart. I go outside. I ride the train, walk among the buildings, men in Monday suits. The flight of doves, the city of tents beneath the underpass, the huddled mass, old women hawking roses, & children all of them, break my heart. There’s a dream I have in which I love the world. I run from end to end like fingers through her hair. There are no borders, only wind. Like you, I was born. Like you, I was raised in the institution of dreaming. Hand on my heart. Hand on my stupid heart.
🌸 Three Quotes | Prentis Hemphill. Germany Kent. Pema Chödrön.
“Boundaries are the distance at which I can love you and me simultaneously." — Prentis Hemphill
“It's a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack.” — Germany Kent
“Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy." — Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
📚 There is a reason this book has 10,859 global ratings, 4.6 stars–it is a book that changed my life–who does not know this place where everything on dime falls apart–where your spine shakes all night long, for days, maybe weeks, months and years, where the dent in your heart feels unhealable.
Pema’s book is medicine for such a breaking apart heart– “To stay with that shakiness — to stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feeling of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge — that is the path of true awakening."
🌸 A Glorious Watch 📺 | Oprah & Richard Rohr on Finding Hope in Uncertain Times
Perhaps you have already heard, or watched, the conversation Oprah just posted five days ago. She speaks with Richard Rohr, who shares revelations from his latest book, "The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage."
They discuss the transformative power of embracing our tears as a path to healing and societal change, focusing on group narcissism and healing through grief. Great love and great suffering awaken the soul. Holy—amen! Watch here
“Tears reveal the depths at which and from which we care".
"If we stay with our rage and resentment too long, we will righteously and unthinkingly pass on the hurt in new directions and we injure our own souls in ways we don't even recognize. This is killing our postmodern world."
– Richard Rohr
A glorious note: The opening poem of the book, Tears of Things, is yes, by beloved Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, her poem For When People Ask
🌸 Did You Sign Up Yet? ✍️ | September 27–The All of It: The Beauty and Sorrow
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer—how lucky are we, my friends! Rosemerry will be here in Chicago on Saturday, September 27, and yes, we get to spend the day with her! We get to play, to wonder, and be with "The All of It—the Beauty and Sorrow."
Listen to Rosemerry read how we come together through grief, her poem Though I Knew Love Before
Please join me for a special one-day retreat with Rosemerry. This event is about much more than just poetry or writing. It's a truly life-affirming and stunning time of remembering.
Together, we'll listen to our hearts and discover the truest gem: our own true heart, gathering in community and allowing our hearts to be fed.
When: Saturday, September 27, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm (Lunch included)
Where: Valley Lo Club, Glenview, IL
Tickets: Three price options are available. Buy your ticket here.
🌸 Closing Song 🎶 | Kind & Generous by Natalie Merchant
Sometimes a song says it all, this is such a song! Give a listen, let your heart sing open, sing out thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!
Send on to all those your dearest loves and friends, those who have held you sacred, showered with kindness and showered you generously in love. Let your heart fly open, sing out!
🎶 Listen here (4:02 min)
La la la la
You've been so kind and generous
I don't know how you keep on giving
For your kindness I'm in debt to you
For your selflessness my admiration
For everything you've done you know I'm bound
I'm bound to thank you for it
La la la la
Hey hey hey
You've been so kind and generous
I don't know how you keep on giving
For your kindness I'm in debt to you
And I never could have come this far without you
For everything you've done, you know I'm bound
I'm bound to thank you for it
La la la la
Oh, I want to thank you for so many gifts you gave
The love, the tenderness, I want to thank you
I want to thank you for your generosity, the love
And the honesty that you gave me
I want to thank you show my gratitude
My love, and my respect for you, I want to thank you
Oh, I want to thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you
I want to thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you
🌸 In all Mystical traditions, there is a closing prayer–even here, I am called to thank the Holy for inspiration, for perseverance, for this showing up, even so– prayers of blessing, gratitude and protection.
May you shower gratitude and holy amens on those you love.
Thank you, thank you.
May you let your tears reveal what is true in your heart.
Once you hear them, do not disavow them—listen, say "yes, please," and "more."
May all beings be safe and protected.
Have a blessed day,
Love, Wini 💖
🌸 Share the Light!
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Will you help spread this tender kindness and care?
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✨ may we bloom more Light.
💞 may we grow more Goodness for the healing of all.
🌎 may each of us stitch more heart-tenderness 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/
