09.01.2025. Sticky Notes and Endings
Hello dear Friends,
“Find a moment of stillness,
give your heart a chance to tell you where you really need to be.”
—Dodinsky, Eremos Newsletter
No In-Person Metta Monday Today —a day of honoring Labor Day
The end of an era. On September 7, I’ll be leaving my office, a space that used to be a gym, that now has housed hundreds of prayers, holy tears, heart-tender aches and body pains, sacred circles, and millions of dances ‘tripping’ with the Holy. The Patio Shops, an iconic Glenview landmark built in 1952 that my family used to own, is coming down. Like Cheers, "where everybody knows your name,” the Patio Shops was such a place of belonging and care for me and my extended family for some thirty-five years. It holds a plethora of memories, and heaps of gratitude (especially to my parents).
Along with the flat roof, red bricks, and neon tubes (and some tucked-away bird nests, too), the prayer wall in my office is coming down. Yesterday, I counted 96 pastel-colored sticky notes, each handwritten with a name—96 prayers placed with such care, and sometimes tender tears. This Friday, I will be dismantling the wall, taking each name down, saying it out loud, and then holding a fire ceremony. I will offer each sacred piece of paper—each name written from heart to hand—to the blaze to become smoke, to become fuel to travel to the heavens.
It’s not too late. If you have a name or a prayer you want held dear and offered to the flame, message me here.
I will have a new temporary office and home for Metta Monday Meditation starting September 15. The lovely Kate McKechnie (if you ever need a PT, there is no other!) offered me the use of her third office while my new one is under construction. And yes, the rumor is true: Marilyn Perlman, one of my ride-or-die besties, and I are opening an office together. Holy-amen!
Closing here, only the sound of my heart beating in gratitude. 🙏
Love, Wini
Scroll below: 2 Poems & 3 Quotes for the Heart. 1 Instagram Post. 1 Wonderment 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
Enter the Temple | James Crews
Follow the thread to where you’re drawn,
even if you’ve never been there before,
even if fear is woven with the call.
Listen for a whisper, slight as the hum
of a hummingbird’s wings: Go here,
then here, then here. You may have fallen
out of the practice of hearing the ocean
that fills the ears, wise wind that stirs
the trees of the lungs to speak. Still,
stretch yourself toward thresholds
never crossed, which often first appear
as invisible doorways in the everyday
air you breathe. Feel the loving tug
of something that only wants you
to enter the temple that is your life.
My Species | Jane Hirshfield
even
a small purple artichoke
boiled
in its own bittered
and darkening
waters
grows tender,
grows tender and sweet
patience, I think,
my species
keep testing the spiny leaves
the spiny heart
🌸 Three Quotes | Sayadaw U Tejaniya. Joan Chittister. Shane Parrish.
“If wisdom is lacking, delusion will be right there to say, "We've finished meditation, now let's party!” —Sayadaw U Tejaniya, The DailyTejaniya
“Too often, we miss the obvious: beauty is meant to enable us to transcend the mundane, to escape the frivolous, to save us from the toxicity of the cheap and tawdry. Because of beauty, we may begin to see that the purpose of life is to make beauty possible.. When we begin to recognize beauty, to see it all around us, it has done its work on us. Steeped in beauty, we have become beautiful ourselves.” —Joan Chittister, Two Dogs and a Parrot
“Your heroes are your blueprints. Study what makes them exceptional, not to become them but to become who you're capable of being. The point isn't to be a second-rate version of your hero, it's to be a first-rate version of yourself with upgraded tools. Learn their system. Keep your soul.” — Shane Parrish, Brain Food, The Easy Part
💫 I am a visual learner—perhaps you are too. Sometimes, just to be in the morphic field—to sit with, listen to, and absorb the energy of someone holding a "blueprint" to your beautiful jam—allows you to remember, to trust in the Unknowns, and to hear the Beloved’s "Yes, yes, this is the path to bloom."
It's like a mother saying, "I see you. You got this, too. Go blossom your heart, your sacred offering to this world! Say yes, yes! Here is the gate to the garden, to this world, difficult and holy! Let me show you the way."
“Listen, everyone has a chance.
Is it spring, is it morning?
Are there trees near you,
and does your own soul need comforting?
Quick, then––open the door and fly on your heavy feet; the song
may already be drifting away.”
– Mary Oliver
🌸 A Heart Listen to Inspire | What Am I Carrying In My Cup Today?
A short instagram post to give a listen to, from Globalmindappareal, Pumping Love into the World.
A Buddhist Monk once asked his students: “If you're carrying coffee and someone bumps into you, why did you spill the coffee?" Give a listen here for the answer.
He closes his post with, “Hmm, I like that.” I love this one too.
“So, each and every day, you should pause and think to yourself. What am I carrying in my cup today?”
🌸 A Must ✍️ Up! | September 27–Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer will be in town!
One Practice
said the fallen woman
to the indifferent sky
I am still learning to fly
— Rosemary Wahtola Trommer
Oh, something not to miss. And somewhat of a wonderment, too. I met Rosemerry about a year or so ago, invited her to Chicago, and she said, "Yes, yes!" (a double heart yes!).
Come experience the wondrous poet, storyteller, and teacher Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer (as a dear friend heard, "She is a big deal." I smiled and said, "Yes."). It will be a day of listening into your heart—a day of being with "The All of It: the Beauty and Sorrow"—part workshop, part play, and one hundred percent tenderness. A day not-to-miss. No writing experience required. Here are the details:
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 🎶 | Thank You for Hearing Me by Sinéad O'Connor
“...more like a prayer than a song.”
A song about appreciation; a bow of gratitude to all those who stand by us, who see us through "the all of it," who believe in and water our bloom, and about the hushed silence in the end, when there are no words but "thank you." (a good one to send on).
🎶 Listen here (6:25 min)
Thank you for hearing me
Thank you for loving me
Thank you for seeing me
Thanks for silence with me
Thank you for holding me
And saying I could be
Thank you for helping me
Listen on YouTube Here
a gorgeous live performance oh, my look at her, her voice.
🌸 In all Mystical traditions, there is a closing prayer – prayers of blessing, gratitude and protection.
May we keep each other’s light alive as long as possible. There is enough harshness in the world— let’s be light!
May you say yes, yes to your holy bloom –even if you are afraid. Me too. Let's stand with each other. What else is our purpose to do?
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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Help increase more beauty-glow, small donations go along way and help me to continue the Metta Newsletter bloom 🌸 click here Venmo
✨ 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/
