3.24.2025. A Holy Re-Invent
Hello dear Friend
"Maybe if we re-invent whatever our lives give us we find poems"
— Naomi Shihab Nye
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Today, I've been invited into a holy re-invent. Into a sacred pause, the place where poems lay hidden in a fractured right wrist, loss of use of my dominant hand, my husband learning how to gather my in desperate need of a haircut, long gray hair into a ponytail. Poems curled in hair rubber bands, kind words and prayers. Poems blooming in the first green shoots, daffodil blades outside my kitchen window, rising up no matter the threat of cold weather. Somehow, they know even if plummeted by snow, they welcome the weight that bends them to prayer.
They welcome the harsh melt by the warming sun. For they are the poets of persevere, thawing hope, and begin anew; the teachers of how to open again and again, even though the heart is wobbly and worn after a bleak, dark winter. The teachers of how to stand on barren land, tender and soft, and be the first naked bloom of Spring.
So out of this messy, exhausting and beautiful life, where one minute things seem fine and the next things radically change, we find poems, or maybe poems like our raw heart prayers, find us. Maybe this is the Beloved’s calling card.
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Today is Metta (loving-kindness) & Calm-Abiding Meditation Practice
All Welcome. No meditation experience needed.
Come as you are, open heart and all.
2 - 3pm: Drop-in Meditation Practice
3 - 4pm: Back to Basics: Foundational Teachings on Mindful Awareness Meditation Practice
Where: 1765 Glenview Road, Glenview in the Patio Shops
Cost: No Fee. Donations and poems appreciated.
So grateful we are here together.
Love,
Wini
🌸 Below are offerings to warm your heart, and do not miss clicking on the highlighted links to wonder and wander in. xo ♥️
And, a bow of gratitude to Mary S, for being my two-hands to type the Metta Newsletter. ♥️
🌸 Two Poems to Share
PROMISE | Barbara Crooker
This day is an open road
stretching out before you.
Roll down the windows.
Step into your life, as if it were a fast car.
Even in industrial parks,
trees are covered with white blossoms,
festive as brides, and the air is soft
as a well-washed shirt on your arms.
The grass has turned implausibly green.
Tomorrow, the world will begin again,
another fresh start. The blue sky stretches,
shakes out its tent of light. Even dandelions glitter
in the lawn, a handful of golden change.
Change the Lighting | Brooke McNamara
If you can’t change yourself, after all
the efforts, change the light
by which you read your story.
Exchange overhead for something softer -
a lamp, a candle, a vine of shining
holiday lights - and feel yourself
become hugged by the fabric of shadows.
You see the darkness here has wisdom too.
You see these objects around become related
by the pregnant emptiness that holds them,
and you. Let this light reveal the rapture
of being just this. Then, further still, try
moonlight, or no light, until, at last,
this open, sourceless incandescence
which you are
no matter who you think you are
will follow you from the inside
wherever you may go, however
you may change, or not.
🌿 “this open, sourceless incandescence which you are no matter who you think you are. will follow you from the inside wherever you may go, however…” this ‘however’ in the poem is such an essential ‘however’, is the linchpin, the pause to rest into–that no matter what, our radiance, our incandescent light is always shining bright, even when we don't recognize it, even when we cover it over, with the messy mud of life. No one can dim our gold, not even ourselves.
As lovely Pema Chodron says, “Our true nature is like a precious jewel: although it may be temporarily buried in mud, it remains completely brilliant and unaffected. We simply have to uncover it.”
🌸 Three Quotes | Nikita Gill. Carl Rogers. Thich Nhat Hanh.
“If you name it hope instead of impossible.If you hold it with tenderness.If you call it the blessing of your ancestors. If you look around and see the faces of everyone you love trying to save the world with you. Then this work becomes love. And even mountains will move.” — Nikita Gill, Lessons in Trying To Save the World
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” — Carl Rogers
“WE HAVE A LAMP inside us, the lamp of mindfulness, which we can light anytime. The oil of that lamp is our breathing, our steps, and our peaceful smile. We have to light up that lamp of mindfulness so the light will shine out and the darkness will dissipate and cease. Our practice is to light up the lamp.” — Thich Nhat Hanh, Everyday Peace Cards
🌿 A beautiful deck of cards to know about, Everyday Peace Cards. This box of 108 sacred card-teachings was gifted to me long ago from my sister-in-law. It is a treasure to keep nearby, to pull a card to bless and inspire your day. Each card has a short teaching, a wisdom for your day. Instructions are simple: pick one card at random each day. Hold the card in your hand, take three deep breaths before reading the card and then keep the teaching tucked in your heart pocket throughout your day.
Why 108 cards in this deck? In the Buddhist, Hindu, and Yoga traditions, 108 is a sacred number.
“See the light in each other. Be the light for each other.”
— unknown
🌸 Two Instagram Posts to Inspire | The Mother’s Womb & Healing the Family Wound
The Mother’s Womb: Two babies in a womb are discussing, do you believe in life after delivery? This conversation is a tender sweet analogy that speaks to the mystery of life after death, and the journey that continues on. Give a watch here
Healing the Family Wound: Generational trauma a calling?
What a game changer-view, not a burden but a calling give a listen here. Healing future generations is a noble calling.
“This work is bigger than you and the ripple effect is massive.”
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🌸 Something for Your Heart | Song of Psalm 43
For Lent, I am reading a Psalm a day–I have never studied the Psalms. As the light lengthens on the planet, and we welcome the green tender tips coming up from thawing ground, the Psalms keep calling into me, even though I am on foreign soil with limited understanding. I am trusted in the magic of the ancient Unknown.
And here a sacred not-to-miss share: my dear friend’s daughter put Psalm 43 to song. Oh my tender beyond words, Give a listen here. It is sweet and pure, an expression of spontaneous prayer. Maybe this is the deepest root of the Psalms, the heart rising up in tender spontaneous prayer.
Psalm 43, I am Open to Your Gaze.
Written of copy of Psalm 43 here
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🌸 An Event Not to Miss | Healing Vessel, Tuesday April 15
“People who double down on kindness bring a special magic into the world.”
— Yung Pueblo
Healing Vessel is sacred time; an inward time of quiet, of listening into Silence — a time to receive and be nourished by the Sacred. Come join Margaret Pasquesi, Julie Fedeli and me for an exquisite night of tending to the magic that resides inside.
With gentle-beingness, meditative prayer, poetry, live harp music, hands-on energy healing and silence we will hold a sacred container to bloom, unfold the wishes and magic that are breathing within you.
When: Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Time: 6-8:30 pm
Where: 1765 Glenview Road, Glenview
Space is limited to 9
(4 spots open)
Pricing: We offer three payment tiers to keep Healing Vessel accessible and open for all! Please choose the amount that works for you.
Standard Fee: $150
Scholarship Fee: $160-$260*
Reduced Fee: $130
*Includes added donations to support scholarships and our overall costs.
Thank you for supporting our scholarship program!
“The people I admire most
are the ones who unabashedly
tend to their inner peace.“
— Yung Pueblo
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🌸 Closing Song | Wild Mountain Thyme with the National Symphony Orchestra
Give a listen & watch. Powerful performance by Laufey, dodie, and Jacob Collier perform 'Wild Mountain Thyme' with National Symphony Orchestra| Next at the Kennedy Center
The three each sing a solo, exquisite and authentic expression of voice intertwining.
Do not miss, midway through, Jacob Bollier leads the audience in the joyful experience of improvised humming. What is more joyous than this—people coming together, creating one voice! And who cannot help but smile in return.
And the closing comment,
“Ladies and gentlemen this is your future, I think it's going to be okay.”
Listen on YouTube here (10:05 min)
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“May you open to the sourceless incandescence
Light within.
May no one dim your gold
not even yourself.
May you hold yourself sacred, a daffodil blooming
on barren land offering hope.”
Have a blessed day,
Love, Wini
🌸 I’m grateful you’re a part of this community.
Please share on, to a friend who might need tender dollops of kindness and love. Click here to subscribe
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✨ may we bloom more Light together.
💞 may we grow more Goodness for the healing of all
🌎 may we stitch more heart-tenderness into the fabric of our planet.
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Zelle: wininim@gmail.com or 847.312.9313
….Until next week. 💖 ✨
