12.1.2025. Mystery & Indelible Marks
Hello dear Friends,
“Like a handprint on my heart”
— Stephen Schwartz
🍃
Strange today, an odd—perhaps it could even be called a random mystical occurrence, but for sure a mystery—happened at 1:37 a.m. My phone broke into song, loud, as if the powerhouse duo Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel were standing in my bedroom, hearts wide open, belting out the chorus: “Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better? I believe I have been, because I knew you, I have been changed for good.”
It was astounding and disorienting. It took me a moment to shake awake enough to realize it was my phone singing its heart out—the song, “For Good” from the musical Wicked. It took another moment to find the volume button, turn it down, and finally, turn it off.
I awoke enough to let this early morning ballad, this non-rational experience, leave a handprint of wonderment, of the mysterious, on my heart. Somehow I knew it was a numinous "thread of magic" to pay attention to—and yet, there is always a choice—I could let my rational mind ignore and dismiss this phenomenon as 'nothing' and 'go back to sleep.'
But it was so bizarrely odd—this pre-dawn song on the first day of Advent, the season of pondering and holy yeses—that I chose to pay attention, to listen to the unseen. And now I have listened to the song “For Good”—oh my, I don’t even know how many times (a heart-smile here).
After listening on repeat, letting this song tenderize my heart, I see why people weep rose-petal soft tears, holding hands with their bestie, to this song; why it is sung at graduations, funerals, retirement parties, and by best friend duos. It speaks to this simple truth:
It’s the random, not planned, encounters—unseen and seen, friendships, collaborations, and connections—that leave indelible marks on our hearts. Even the relationships and interactions that we dismiss as failures, mucked up, or inconsequential impact who we are and change us forever. This is the sheer, holy complexity of the intersection of being human, of love, of forgiveness, and of our kinship with each other.
The everyday encounter is not predetermined. Every kindness we extend, every moment, is a choice for grace and growth (or not). We can choose to extend an open-courageous heartedness, holding all we experience with kindness, offering Metta (loving-kindness) to each other, to ourselves, to the random stranger, and to the difficult person. We offer this to all beings: “May you be happy, this I wish for you.”
We press this wish of goodwill and happiness—this handprint—into our hearts.
🍃
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 min “WORKING WITH PAIN AND DISCOMFORT” Guided Meditation Practice & 25-minute MettaMeditation Practice
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Conversations on the Practice of Meditation
Dāna: Pay What You Can. (suggested donation $10-$40)
Location: 778 West Frontage Road, Suite 111, Northfield, IL.
Closing with gratitude,
Love, Wini
PS. More goodness below, made with ♥️
PSS. Don't miss this version of "For Good" with Four Witches (4:28 min)! Wait for it, the magic happens at 2:28 min—pure, holy gorgeousness.
💌 Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! Send on dollops of tender goodness, They can sign up here
☕ Buy Me A Coffee: If you enjoy these free weekly emails, please consider making a donation here, or become a member and support this offering on a monthly basis.
🌸 Two Poems
November | Lynn Ungar
You are not obliged to be beautiful
You don't have to shine.
Blooming will happen when it happens.
If you can be still for a moment
you might notice that
the roots that feed you
are still reaching silently through the dark.
The Way It Is | William Stafford
Yes
It could happen any time, tornado,
earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen.
Or sunshine, love, salvation.
It could, you know. That’s why we wake
and look out — no guarantees
in this life.
But some bonuses, like morning,
like right now, like noon,
like evening.
🍃Oh, this profound teaching—there are no guarantees. We know this is true in our bones; even so, we still try hard with a diligent wish of 'if only' then 'I can control the outcome.'
But, what if we go for the bonuses—like morning, now, noon, and evening.
What if we go for the bonuses of breath, gravity, and ground too– these three things are always present resources of self-care.
🌸 Three Quotes | Ronald Rolheiser. Albert Schweitzer. Jane Kenyon.
“Prayer is easy only for beginners and for those who are already Saints. During all the long years in between, it is difficult. Why? Because prayer has the same inner dynamics as love, and love is sweet only in its initial stage, when we first fall in love, and again in its final, mature stage. In between, love is hard work, dogged fidelity, and needs willful commitment beyond what is normally provided by our emotions and our imagination. It's when I say, "I don't know how to love," and, "I don't know how to pray," that I first begin to understand what love and prayer actually are." — Ronald Rolheiser, Prayer: Our Deepest Longing
“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” —Albert Schweitzer, Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography
“Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours.” — Jane Kenyon, A Hundred White Daffodils “Everything I Know About Poetry (Notes for a Lecture)."
🍃Advice to seed in our creative hearts, to protect and feed our inner lives. (Holy amen). I am falling in love with this poet, Jane Kenyon (May 23, 1947–April 22, 1995). She died young and was married to the poet Donald Hall. Here her poem "Things" was read by Maria Popova.
🌸 A Collaboration To Know About | Poet Kenneth Steven & Musician Simon de Voil
“I am going further north, he said
I do not know what I will find
perhaps I will not come back
all I know is that I must seek
this somewhere with all my soul”
— from A Song Among the Stones
🍃
Oh my, do not miss this most lovely collaboration! It is a divine inspiration, the result of two and half years of heart-poured effort.
A Song Among the Stones is a narrative cycle of poems inspired by the incredible 7th-century Irish hermit monks who left the island of Iona and dared to cross an unforgiving ocean to the wild, unknown shores of Iceland. What did they find there, on the edge of their world? Give a listen.
For this creative endeavor, poet Kenneth Steven distilled their experience into a sequence of poems that are sparse and pared to the bone, suggesting simple fragments of story recorded by the monks after their return to Scotland. Simon has set the work to an original musical score to accompany Kenneth’s beautiful narration of this epic poem.
Here the Audio Recording & Downloadable Book
“...there the monastery was built
of broken stone
above the place where she had never died”
–from A Song among the Stones
🍃
🌸 Something To Attend | Mosaic Studio Open House 🗓️
Saturday, December 6th 12-7pm
1520 East Lake Avenue, Glenview
Mosaic tables, cards, jewelry, ornaments, antique chests & more!
Some of you know my dear friend, Amy Masterson—she is beyond lovely! Amy is hosting this holiday open house at her sweet-to-the-bone studio. If you are in the Chicago area, it is definitely something to stop in on!
And good to know about a place to create your own mosaic table too! Let your creative heart bloom!
🌸🎶 Closing Song | Bruce Springsteen: Ancestors v. Ghosts
This lovely offering was sent my way by Sue, one of the voices that uplifts and holds the heart of Metta sacred each week!
This is a heart-thump story that speaks directly to the legacy of the work we each do to liberate family-generational patterns—for healing and the benefit of all.
“We are ghosts or we are ancestors in our children’s lives. We either lay our mistakes, our burdens upon them, and we haunt them or we assist them in laying those old burdens down and we free them from the chain of our own flawed behavior. And as ancestors, we walk alongside of them, and we assist them in finding their own way, and some transcendence.” – Bruce Springsteen, poet, philosopher, and musician.
Listen to Bruce's powerful reflection on his relationship with his father in his Long Time Comin’ introduction (3:08 min Spotify). He shares the unexpected visit from his father—who struggled with many issues, including undiagnosed bipolar disorder—just before the birth of his first child. Listen here (3:10 min YouTube)
🌸🙏 Dedicate Merit | In all Mystical traditions, there is a closing prayer – prayers of blessing, gratitude and protection.
“May you risk being your true self.”
“May you extend kindness to yourself and everyone you meet.”
“May you embrace the sheer, holy complexity of your connections, acknowledging that every encounter—whether random, dismissed, or deeply cherished—changes you for good.”
Have a blessed day,
Love, Wini 💖
🌸 ✨ 🙏 Offer Support
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 a 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/
