02.24.2025. Let ‘Broken-Open’ Guide
Hello dear Friends,
Brutal + Beautiful = Brutiful
“Life is brutal, but it’s also beautiful. Life is Brutiful.”
― Glennon Doyle Melton
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“Life’s brutal and beautiful are woven together so tightly that they can’t be separated. Reject the brutal, reject the beauty. So now I embrace both, and I live well and hard and real.” This seems so fitting for our world; brutiful, magnificent and troubled.
This is a profound life task, learning to embrace both, vessel opposites – brutal and beautiful, magnificent and troubled, fractured and unified– hold both the divine tensions within our own hearts and out in the world. This is not so easy to do; this learning to hold a gentle grip–on what is real and what is ideal– like two newborn baby chicks, one in each upturned palm of our hands. This waiting to see what births, takes flight, delights. But our tendency is to close too soon, squeeze too tight.
So we begin practicing with the crumbling earthy soil of our own hearts. Holding and welcoming the dark gold ground of our being–offering praise to all of who we are, all our emotions, all the bones of our shame, blame, and push away, all the fibers of our neurosis, and all the soft tissues of our kindness.
Then we let heartbreak be our guide. We pay attention to what breaks our heart open, what tenderizes our worries and fears, what gives poetry to our tears. We hold softly and softly ‘broken’ and ‘open’, two blue bright robin eggs, and follow as ‘teacher’. No one can hold all the suffering in this world, but we can let ‘broken-open’ guide each of us to what is ours to do, and ours to hold in this magnificent and troubled world.
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Today is Metta (loving-kindness) & Calm-Abiding Meditation Practice
All Welcome. No meditation experience required.
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 tend your heart….and links to rest in… ♥️
🌸 Two Poems to Share
Everyday Grace | Stella Nesanovich
It can happen like that:
meeting at the market,
buying tires amid the smell
of rubber, the grating sound
of jack hammers and drills,
anywhere we share stories,
and grace flows between us.
The tire center waiting room
becomes a healing place
as one speaks of her husband's
heart valve replacement, bedsores
from complications. A man
speaks of multiple surgeries,
notes his false appearance
as strong and healthy.
I share my sister's death
from breast cancer, her
youngest only seven.
A woman rises, gives
her name, Mrs. Henry,
then takes my hand.
Suddenly an ordinary day
becomes holy ground.
It Could Be | Julia Fahrenbach
a smile or a poem. Or new day light
that finds you through an open
window. Or, perhaps, remembering
that tomorrow was never promised.
It could be the scent
of baking bread, the first chill
of autumn that has you reaching
for your favorite wool sweater. Or maybe
it’s the noticing of how easily
red maple becomes and lets go.
It could be taking today off
to be still, to un-know,
to notice. To practice loosening
your troubled grip
because grace can never
be gripped or grabbed.
It could be choosing
softness in a world grown hard
because you’re tired of hurting
and being hurt and mercy
is the best kind of medicine.
It could be an invitation to gather
around the listening table
where every color is beautiful, where
there is no blame,
no shame, no them—no other.
it could be
It could be any of these things
or no thing at all, that remind you that, really,
only a few things matter—
Food. Trees. Words. Love. Mostly love.
🌿 Wondering what is the “it could be” for you? What is your bottomline “few things” that matter?
What if you and I let ourselves ponder in wonder. Show up as our natural self, noticing the smallest of things, the things that drop us to our knees in prayer. Not the big drama shiny things, but the sweet dibbles of life that are happening everyday, in our ordinary mundane, routine moments of life. What “few things really matter” there?
🌸 Three Quotes | L.R. Knost. Toko-pa Turner. Tracy Cochran.
“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.” ― L.R. Knost
“There is a wild woman under our skin who wants nothing more than to dance until her feet are sore, sing her beautiful grief into the rafters, and offer the bottomless cup of her creativity as a way of life. And if you are able to sing from the very wound that you’ve worked so hard to hide, not only will it give meaning to your own story, but it becomes a corroborative voice for others with a similar wounding.” ― Toko-pa Turner, Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home
“We aren’t in control in the way we think we are. Things happen, even terrible things, but they are not what they seem to be. And we aren’t alone. There is a light, a luminosity behind the appearances of this world.” — Tracy Cochran, “The Night I Died”
🌸 Something to Inspire | Tiny and Snail
I received a card in the mail (remember when….) I felt the same thrill of excitement, a hand addressed envelope in my name, heavy weighted, stamped and licked sealed. Inside a note written in royal blue cursive penmanship (rumor has it, cursive is out, texting and typing with autocorrect is ‘lit’). Then there was the card; made from thick cardstock, when held in my two hands weighs into a tender hug. The image and quote on the card, soul-heartwarming kind.
I turned the card over to read: Light!
“Tiny and Snail (est. 2017) is run by a sister team, Grace and Leah. We create joyful illustrations and believe that technology will never be as magical as a paper card.
The road hasn't been easy. In 2018, Leah/Tiny was in a life-altering accident while working her day job, building homes for Habitat for Humanity, which left her paralyzed from the chest down. In that brutal time, Tiny and Snail provided a life raft for us to cling to. Our cards and art reflect the wonder of life and the ability to shine light into dark days.”
And I knew, I wanted you too to know about this lovely offering on the planet and the power of snail mail! Inspiring cards at your fingertips.
“Wherever you are, at any moment, try and find something beautiful. A face, a line out of a poem, the clouds out of a window, some graffiti, a wind farm. Beauty cleans the mind.”
— Matt Haig
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🌸 Two Books On My Must Read List | One I sent. One I received.
On Thursday, I sent a book via Amazon to a friend. I just had a feeling she would love to know about it.(Recommended by my Spiritual Director and musician, Simon de Voil) And I thought what a lovely surprise to get a book gift randomly in the mail, like the Starbucks drive-thru "Pay It Forward" coffee line.
On Saturday morning, I got a text from this same friend, “Good morning friend. I am reading a book right now that has BLOWN ME AWAY and I know I have to share it with you. Send me your address.”
I reply, “God has been whispering in our ears! I sent you a book on Thursday via amazon!”
She replied, “WHHHAAATTT?! OMG”
Okay, what are the chances of that??? Where there is synchronicity I always pay attention. Sharing on:
My Body Is Not A Prayer Request by Dr. Amy Kenny
Psalms: A Millennial's Poetic Interpretation by Rabbi Dr. Brielle Paige Rassler
“My disabled body is beautiful in its distinctiveness. My body might be more crooked than yours, but it has earned its spiky edges. My leg might be blue from lack of circulation, but it sparkles like sapphires. My nerves are on fire, but it is fire that releases the sequoia cones that germinate the forest. My spasms are sharp as ice, but ice is what regulates the ocean's tide. My disabled body is made of the same stuff as stars.”
― Amy Kenny
🌸 Closing Song | Chantress Seba. Singer of the Stars.
“A voice to guide us home to our hearts.”
Music that calls into the heart, the “devotional journey and deep understanding of how to transmute trauma and the strain of modern society into a harmonious connection with our true innate state of being, Love.”
Song: Softening into Change (1hr) - Soothe Anxiety & Calm Your Nervous System - #528hz Healing Frequency
Listen on YouTube here (1:00:53 min. long version)
Listen on Spotify here (10:26 min, short version)
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May you be light, a lamp,
an illumination to pass onto others
freedom, well being and love.
May you set the compass of your heart
towards the Beloved.
Have a blessed-gorgeous 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. 💖 ✨
