11.17.2025. Radio Waves & Lotus Blooms
Hello dear Friends,
I have been tumbling more and more into the two roots of metta—gentle and friend—understanding that, perhaps without these two qualities, we, too, cannot bloom as wide as we were designed to do: to be the thousand-petaled lotus, seeded in dark, rising through mud, offering out our papery-soft petal-prayers some three to six feet above. Did you know a lotus seed can remain dormant for years, some say thousands, until all the conditions are correct to sprout?
This gives me hope: A seed, nestled in the dark awaits the right conditions—from hard-shelled seed, to bud, to naked bloom. This is us too.
Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh reminds us:
“When conditions are sufficient, we manifest. When conditions are no longer sufficient, we no longer manifest.
t does not mean that we do not exist. Like radio waves without a radio, we do not manifest.”
We know this is true, the unseen radio waves are in the room. We just need a radio. So, we gather all the parts, build a radio, plug it in, turn the knob, and there, playing in the room, is NPR. This too is the path of our lotus seed heart—the sacred pilgrimage of emerge; how dark meets bloom; how mud grows true.
How the hard, dark-brown seed, within, comes to full bloom. Its outer protective shell softened by the conditions of warm, rubbing water and time. That then splits open, anchors its newfound roots down into the bottom mud, and pushes up its flower bud.
As if loosening tight skin in mud to bud was not miraculous enough, the lotus goes beyond: it trusts the path of dark pond to air. Emerges from water’s ripple, unfurls its honey scent, and opens out its thousand-arm blossom as if offering morning prayer to the waking sky.
This wholly paying attention to our heart, again and again, with tenderness, forgiveness, and care, met with kind– something miraculous happens: We soften. We open. We grow more human, vulnerable, and gorgeously alive. We cry, we laugh. We welcome the beauty of our thousand-petaled bloom. Each petal a surprise. Each a wonder.
The marvel of metta: the capacity to create the conditions to open the hardened, broken, scotch-taped heart.
🍃
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-Compassion & 25-minute Metta Meditation Practice
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Conversations on the Practice of Meditation
Dāna: Pay What You Can
* Meeting at Metta Meditation’s New Home: 778 West Frontage Road, Suite 111, Northfield, IL.
Closing with gratitude,
Love, Wini
PS. More goodness below, made with ♥️
💌 Perhaps you know someone in need of a dollop of tenderness, share this letter: Please forward on.
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🌸 Two Poems
Witness | Denise Levertov
Sometimes the mountain
is hidden from me in veils
of cloud, sometimes
I am hidden from the mountain
in veils of inattention, apathy, fatique,
when I forget or refuse to go
down to the shore or a few yards
up the road, on a clear day,
to reconfirm
that witnessing presence.
Falling In | Rosemary Wahtola Trommer
Again today I rest my hand above my heart
and feel how naturally the body softens,
how simple it is in this moment to forgive
myself for thinking I should be anything
but what I am. Hello air that fills
this body. Hello life that pulses through.
Hello mystery of gentling. Hello self
who would resist. I rest my hand
above my heart and think of how
for many years my teacher laid
her teachings exactly there—
placed them right where my hand is now
so that when my heart broke,
the teachings fell in. . .
I think of how it saved me, this falling in,
how in that terrible breaking moment,
what had been understood only by the head
became blood, became breath,
became every step, every unstep,
became nerve, became bone,
became true.
I rest my hand above my heart
and feel how this, too, is the tenderest of teachings—
to say yes to the body, to ask nothing of it,
to feel in the palm the miracle of heart beat,
and fall in, fall all the way in.
🍃 So much beauty held in this poem. So many instructions for waking up, for kindness, for self-compassion, for allowing what is in the room. The first gesture of the open heart, soften.
The beauty of our own hand, placed on our own heart, and our own gentle voice—the one reserved for breakups, best friends, and brokenhearted friends—our own tender, tender voice, maybe even tearful and trembling, saying,
“Oh, hello... loss, grief, kindness .”
This “hello” in the poem—befriending with gentle whatever is here in your own heart room.
🌸 Three Quotes | Pema Chödrön. Mark Nepo. Nikki Mirghafori.
“We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice.” — Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times.
“It seems that intuitive listening requires us to still our minds until the beauty of things older than our minds can find us.” ― Mark Nepo, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What Is Sacred
“The script is not fixed. It has infinite possibilities, albeit each with varying probabilities. And we have an incredible gift: the freedom to choose our perspective, the way we see.”
🌸 Need An Exquisite Holiday Gift? | Shop at MudGirls Studio: Empowers Women!
Oh, you have heard me singing the praises of the non-profit ceramic studio founded by my sister-in-law Carole's dear friend, Dorrie Papademetriou: MudGirls Studio.
No better time than now to get ahead of holiday shopping and give a gift with heart and care that ripples out into the world.
If you’re in need of gifting something special to someone that has everything, this is the place to give your support.
🌸 Give Yourself The Gift Of Care | Join Me in Montana This Spring! 🌷🌱🐝🦋🐦
The Word On The Street:
“This retreat was amazing in every way. The sessions focused on healing at a deep level. The instructors are expert at what they each do. What a great way to heal, make new friends, and experience unparalleled beauty inside and out."
Come be renewed this Spring—be in the ‘greening energy’ that pulses through everything. This is the energy of the Divine feminine that cannot be stopped, that warms the leaves on trees, pushes up through hard ground, and opens the lotus seed in our hearts, and welcomes spring
Join me and my co-retreat teachers—Megan Dunne Krouse & Courtney Riley, truly a gorgeous, dream team combo!
EMBODIMENT MONTANA SPRING RETREAT
2026 May 4–8, 2026 (Whitefish, MT)
This intimate 5-day women's immersion focused on this ‘greening energy’ and reconnecting with your Wild Heart Bloom, will be truly nourishing.
Nature & Hiking 🏞️
Meditation, Breathwork & Movement 🧘♀️
Ritual & Contemplative Writing 📝
Blooming Sacred YOU! 🌸
👉 CLICK HERE TO REGISTER & LEARN MORE
🌸🎶 Closing Songs | Another Wonder of Song Sent from Gina
Lovely Gina, who is a devotee of Metta, is a treasure trove of songs. Here is one she sent my way: this gorgeous three-part harmony by The Staves, "Nothing’s Gonna Happen" (3:56 min).
The lyrics are an offering—who does not know this place—"your back against the door?"
This place of ‘can’t make a move’ frozen in fear and yet needing to step through that 'door’ (whatever your door is).
This place of stepping out into the world, vulnerable, wide open, and trying, knowing if you do not, nothing will change. “Nothing’s gonna happen.”
🎵 Lyrics
How can I rearrange
And put it on the page
When the enemy's at the door?
And there's nothing you can do
They've never seen before
And everybody knows
Nothing's gonna happen
With your back against the door
🌸🙏 Dedicate Merit | In all Mystical traditions, there is a closing prayer – prayers of blessing, gratitude and protection.
May you open to the miraculous wonder of you.
May the path of kindness guide your day
May all beings be safe and protected.
Have a blessed day,
Love, Wini 💖
🌸 ✨ Pass It On ✨
If you appreciate receiving these free weekly offerings grounded in poems, quotes, songs and heart goodness please consider offering support through Buy Me a Coffee, 🌸 venmo (Winifred-Nimrod) 🌸 or zelle (wininim@gmail.com) 🌸
Thank you, I am a one-woman, one-finger at time show.
Send on, add more light into our tender complex world.
✨ 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/
