11.03.2025. Slow Bloom
Hello dear Friends,
"Our capacity to know joy is directly related to our capacity to forgive."
— Charlotte Joko Beck, Zen teacher
🍃
The ‘unforgivables’, a collection of: ‘could’ve, should’ve done it better, ‘ugh’ said it differently. Did not make amends. Betrayed and battered by broken, by words unspoken, by touches ungiven and good night kisses that got away.
Then, there are addictive patterns too that relish in having 'their way': they abscond with the keys to our car. Throw us in the back seat, hit reverse, hard. Speed off backwards out of the garage. They then proceed to drive directly across all our neighbors' front and back yards. No one, and nothing, is spared; patterns tend to drive with the intent to harm. By the time the fuel gauge registers “E,” the energy of the pattern has sputtered to a stop—out we tremble, bruised dark, its purplish-yellow ring already forming around our tender hearts.
Today, forgiveness—for self and others—is on my heart and mind. I’ve been diving in, looking at it from all sides (the latest module given for my training with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach). I am enlivened by the conversations and teachers (Buddha, Christ, Mystics, poets, and musicians included) of the awakened heart and by the latest findings about the brain’s hemispheres organization and ways of pay attention—the ‘left/parts/individual/fix/spotlight’ and the ‘right/whole/mutual/wonder/floodlight’.
I have “no cure all,” no instructions to tie the ache of self-forgiveness up in a two-foot, pretty, “nice” curly bow. But, I can offer here a small glimpse of light slipping through the narrow crack under the door—small openings I've been gleaning—the generative nature of hunger and willingness, and the danger of indifference.
Willingness is not a thought in the head, but a willingness rooted in ‘to choose’, to feel in the body, the painful acknowledgment that none of us is perfect. We all have foibles, human limitations. We are fallible, not infallible. We all make mistakes. We all hunger for kinship with the self and with the other.
This hunger encourages us to open, to pivot our views, and slays indifference—maybe the deadliest of sins—where we are in great danger, for indifference reduces ourselves and others to an object. Objects are disposable–we use, easily discard and ignore, treat as trash, as subhuman, and be indifferent towards. This we do to ourselves. Become an object, toss ourselves aside out of our early wirings and wounds.
Perhaps this is where we begin the tenderest of tender holy work—self-forgiveness. Taking this work to our bones, we call back the truth: We're not objects, we are subjects worthy of attention, of connection, of believing in. We, too, are just another fellow human on the path, f*cking up, learning, and growing. We grieve, we come to grips with, "We only know what we know." Now, we know something different.
Like the lotus' slow bloom up through the mud, we begin. This takes time. There are no quick-fix miracles. As the Buddhists say, "Out of suffering arises compassion." We soften the shame-blame cycle, free our hearts, and release the pain chains of the past. Be open to surprise—we are a project in process.
We offer mercy, care, and kindness to our human hearts. And we do this again and again, even on our deathbeds. Lately, my prayer has been “Enough,” may I die with a full bloom (not brittle).
"The essence of human bravery is
refusing to give up on anyone or anything, including ourselves."
— Chogyam Trungpa
🍃
Come Join Me Today *
Drop-in Meditation Monday
All are welcome; no prior experience is needed—just bring an open heart.
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM: 20-minute Guided Meditation on Self-Forgiveness (bring a journal, there will be no sharing) & 25-minute Metta Meditation Practice
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Conversations on the Practice of Meditation
* New Temporary Location: 778 West Frontage Road, Suite 114, Northfield, IL
Donations are gratefully accepted.
Closing with gratitude,
Love, Wini
Scroll below: More goodness to find, made with ♥️.
💌 If this newsletter has meant something to you, I invite to buy me a coffee and pass it along—send it to a friend, a colleague, or someone in your life who might need a reminder about the power of tenderness and care. Subscribe for your own copy
🌸 ✍️📝 Two Poems
Instructions on Not Giving Up | Ada Limón
Make me laugh over coffee,
make it a double, make it frothy
so it seethes in our delight.
Make my cup overflow
with your small happiness.
I want to hoot and snort and cackle and chuckle.
Let your laughter fill me like a bell.
Let me listen to your ringing and singing
as Billie Holiday croons above our heads.
Sorry, the blues are nowhere to be found.
Not tonight. Not here.
No makeup. No tears.
Only contours. Only curves.
Each sip takes back a pound,
each dry-roasted swirl takes our soul.
Can I have a refill, just one more?
Let the bitterness sink to the bottom of our lives.
Let us take this joy to go.
The Healing Time | Pesha Gertler
Finally on my way to yes
I bump into
all the places
where I said no
to my life
all the untended wounds
the red and purple scars
those hieroglyphs of pain
carved into my skin, my bones,
those coded messages
that send me down
the wrong street
again and again
where I find them
the old wounds
the old misdirections
and I lift them
one by one
close to my heart
and I say holy
holy.
🌸 Three Quotes | Andrea Gibson. Pema Chödrön. Tyler Alterman.
“When all the good in you starts arguing with all the bad in you about who you really are— never let the bad in you make the better case.” — Andrea Gibson, ‘All the Good in You’
“Be Patient With Yourself—I’d like to stress yet again that the thing we have to be most patient with is when we find ourselves being despondent about our inability to do any of this. For patience to lead to the cessation of suffering, for it to develop into fear-lessness and genuine curiosity, we need to be patient with ourselves just as we are. — Pema Chödrön, The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times
“Amongst dancers, it’s well known that there’s a pre-dance that you have to do before each time you dance. You have to bear 10-30 minutes of dancing in a way that feels awkward before you really hit your groove If you didn’t know about the pre-dance phenomenon, then you might give up dancing at minute 7, right before you were about to hit your groove I find that anything involving creativity is like this, from writing to schmoozing at a party to working through my own complex emotions. If you don’t know that all these things require an awkward pre-dance, then you lose confidence too early. You conclude that you’re “just not a creative person.” You give up or start using an AI instead of your own internal ocean of untapped intelligence.” - Tyler Alterman
🍃 This quote I came across in Susan Cain’s substack The Quiet Life That Awkward First 30 Minutes—Why we give up too soon: on creativity, connection, and sometimes, ourselves
Good to know—it takes 35 minutes to hit our groove!
Perseverance, patience and effort are required.
🌸 DID YOU HEAR!? | Registration is now OPEN: Montana Retreat 2026!
“Such a marvel, the tenacity of the buds to surge with life every spring, to greet the lengthening days and
warming weather with exuberance, no matter what hardships were brought by winter.”
— Suzanne Simard
🍃
Embodiment Montana Spring 2026 with The Dream Team: Courtney, Megan & Wini
May 4 – May 8, 2026 (5 Days) | Whitefish, Montana
Join The Dream Team—Courtney, Megan, and Wini—for an intimate, immersive journey to spring renewal, learn, live, grow! Bloom 🌸
Retreat View
Dates: May 4 – May 8, 2026 (5 Days)
Location: Mountainside Lodging & Retreats, Whitefish, Montana 🌲 (Near Glacier National Park)
The Journey: A women's retreat focused on reconnecting with your authentic Wild Heart through:
Nature & Hiking 🏞️
Breathwork & Movement 🧘♀️
Meditation & Yoga Nidra ✨
Ritual & Contemplative Writing 📝
Your Teachers: Courtney Riley, Megan Dunne Krouse, & Wini Nimrod.
Only 17 spots are available for this unique experience. Secure your place now before we open registration to the public!
🌸🎶 Closing Song | Heartbeat by Danit
May we connect to the universal heartbeat….Listen on Youtube or Spotify
🎵 Lyrics
Behind all illusions, there's reality
Reminder of simplicity
Surrender our souls to the mystery
Opening our hearts completely
We're circling around and around and around in this wheel of life
Breathing in and out life, breathing in and out love
Connecting all there is and embracing
Here and now, here and now, here and now
🌸🙏 Dedicate Merit | In all Mystical traditions, there is a closing prayer – prayers of blessing, gratitude and protection.
May you acknowledge your human limitations and mistakes with kindness.
May you soften the shame-blame cycle and release the pain chains of the past.
May you know that you are a subject worthy of attention, connection, and belief.
May all beings be safe and protected.
Have a blessed day,
Love, Wini 💖
🌸 ✨ Pass It On ✨
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Help spread tender kindness and care out into the world.
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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/
