03.03.2025. We Never Give Up
Hello dear Friends,
“The leaders of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the European Council, the European Parliament, the European Union, and others all posted their support for Ukraine and Zelensky.
As you heard from the cheers on the street outside, you have full backing across the United Kingdom. We stand with you and Ukraine for as long as it may take."
— Heather Cox Richardson, Letters From an American
“We just never give up. We keep the faith. We keep the faith in goodness. We keep the faith in nonviolent protest. One thing important, I am remembering is what Dr. Martin Luther King said, “Don’t let them get you to hate them.”
– Anne Lamott, In the Dark Night of Soul, We Breathe
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Reminder: No Metta Monday Today,
away with family. a blessing amen.
See you next Monday,
So grateful we are here together.
Love,
Wini
🌸 Below are offerings to tend your heart….and links to rest in… ♥️
🌸 Two Poems to Share
Never the Same | Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Sometimes a person wakes
believing they are a storm.
It’s hard to deny it, what,
with all the rain pouring out
of the gutters of the mind,
all the gusts blowing through,
all the squalls, all the gray.
But by afternoon, it seems obvious
they are a garden about to sprout.
By night, it is clear they are a moon—
luminous, radiant, faithful.
That’s the danger, I suppose,
of believing any frame.
Let me believe, then, in curiosity,
in wonder, in change.
Let me trust how essential it is
to stumble into the trough
of the unknown, marvel how
trough becomes wings becomes
faith becomes math. Let me trust
uncertainty is a sacred path.
Love After Love | Derek Walcott
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread.
Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
🌿 Listen to the whole poem here in spoken word artist/poet Kim Rosen delivering Derek Walcott's poem, "Love after Love" with music by Jami Sieber (cello)
🌸 Three Quotes | Julie Tallard Johnson. Jetsun Tezin Palmo. James Hillman.
“Help arrives in many forms—through synchronicities, our Ancestors, the Trees, or unseen allies. Call it the Great Unknown, the Tao, or something else entirely—something always appears just in time, offering a warning, a call to action, and a message of hope.” —Julie Tallard Johnson
“I say to my nuns again and again, "My Dears, it's not having a shaved head and wearing robes that makes you a Dharma practitioner." It's how you respond to everyday, ordinary circumstances, especially if someone does something you don't want or speaks to you rudely or criticises you, how do you respond? Do you get all upset and defensive and say, "You did that and that and that," or do you say, "Oh, thank you, right, let's use that, may you be well and happy." — Jetsun Tezin Palmo
“Nothing more tedious than practicing your scales or mumbling your beads. Yet the accomplishments of art, the efficacy of prayer, the beauty of ritual, and the force of character depend on petty repetitions any instant of which, taken for itself alone, seems utterly useless.” — James Hillman, The Force of Character and the Lasting Life by James Hillman
🌿 ‘The romantic said, “Tell me what you long for and I will tell you who you are.” …a tremendous sentence.’
a tremendous sentence, yes. When I look into my own heart, listen with the ears of my own heart, I want to weep. My ‘Longing’ is a clear crisp bell, ringing over and over, I see she has been keeping me awake.
What is it that you long for?
Tell me, and I will tell you mine,
Together.
This is our holy amen.
🌸 A Sweet Something | Big or Small
“We placed a microphone in the library with a sign that said…
Whisper something good that happened recently…”
In the middle of what may seem like a world turned upside down, there is this sweet reminder, in the middle of a library aisle, in the middle of a random day – listen to the whispers from the middle of someone’s heart.
Big or small, every day is filled with good things waiting to be discovered…
In the middle of our world where many things seem uncertain, there is one thing that is certain– every day small nibbles of goodness, gentleness and kindness are waiting to be consumed and we are much more similar than different from each other.
The simple things that in truth are the ‘grand canyon’ colossal things that fill us whole, fill us with alive-life, with love. Watch here
In the middle of your day,
What is something good you would whisper into a microphone?
“Under the shade of old trees, we remember that we belong to each other.”
–Unknown
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🌸 Something to Remember | The Top 5 Regrets
I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life that others expected of me
I wish I hadn’t worked so hard
I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends
I wish I had allowed myself to be happier.
These are the top 5 Regrets of the Dying, nurse Bronnie Ware, who worked in palliative care, writes about the insights very commonly experienced by terminally ill people, in her memoir, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
I am sharing here because maybe you, like me, read lists like this and I think –
‘oh yeah, I got that, or I know that’
So you and I skim, not letting “the list” land, touch in too deep, interrupt our fragmented minds busy scrolling and swiping, dashing and hashtagging life.
Because if we did let such a list settle into our bones, touch our hearts it would bring the scent of life and inescapable death close in.
But what if we did, let just one of these five common regrets slide close in, what is there then?
Maybe you would not change a thing. Maybe you would change everything. Maybe you would just do simple–reach out to one friend, offer gratitude and love, ‘a hello, how are you? Sending love.’ Simple.
“Since death is certain, but the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing? Every day of your life, every morning of your life, you could ask yourself, “As I go into this day, what is the most important thing? What is the best use of this day?” At my age, it’s kind of scary when I go to bed at night and I look back at the day, and it seems like it passed in the snap of a finger. That was a whole day? What did I do with it? Did I move any closer to being more compassionate, loving, and caring—to being fully awake?"
— Pema Chodron
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🌸 Closing Song | Put Your Roots Down
Put your roots down, put your feet on the ground,
Can you hear what she says when you listen?
'Cause the sweet sound of the river as it moves across the stones
Is the same sound as the blood in your body as it weaves around your bones.
Are you listening? Are you listening?
Music Root Down by Molly Hartwell. A gorgeous heartbeat song inviting us to listen deeply to the rhythm of the Earth and the soul of the river, the same soul that moves through our bones.
I love this soulful version here by Molly Hartwell on Soundcloud (3:01 min)
Listen on YouTube here (1:22 min)
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May you remember to listen
to hear the beat of your own light
the river of clear light of awareness
that runs through everything
that runs through you and your sweet bones.
Have a blessed day,
Love,
Wini
🌸 I’m grateful you’re a part of this community.
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🌎 may we stitch more heart-tenderness into the fabric of our planet.
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….Until next week. 💖 ✨
