Oct 29, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
Just when I think humans are driven only by power and money, I am reminded of this truth: the human spirit is kind and full of light.
I fell flat on my face last week. It happened so fast yet in slow motion. I could see the contents of my tote bag, computer and all, tumble out like jacks just before being scooped up with a jack ball.
Embarrassed and writhing with pain, I saw several people hurrying past on their way to meet deadlines and do important things. Then, I realized that I could not lift my right leg. For an inth of second, I felt alone and scared until two women gathered the contents of my bag and kneeled beside me in the middle of the street. One woman rubbed my shoulders tenderly, and the other said, “We will stay with you until an ambulance comes. Would you like for us to call you an ambulance?”
And stay, they did for at least fifteen minutes. I didn't need an ambulance, but for someone who doesn't ask for help, I was humbled by their kindness and patience with me. Before I hobbled off, we were all laughing at each other's embarrassing moments. For those fifteen minutes, I was well cared for by these wonderful humans.
Something similar happened to me daydreaming crossing a road in London. All of a sudden I was the old lady in the street! Very humbling as you say…and touched with human kindness in my case too - young people helping me up, sitting with me, getting me water…wonderful humans are out there. Thanks for the reminder...
Oct 29, 2023Liked by Carmen Radley, Suleika Jaouad
I raised my niece since she was seven years old. And now she's twenty-five she moved out this past May. In September we had two consecutive weeks of celebration her wedding , then a baby 👶 shower. I was filled with so much wonder how through the years of raising my beautiful niece, and the struggles that came with it.. her feeling abandoned, and neglected from her parents. But through it all I kept praying, stayed present, and through all the testing she gave me I loved her unconditionally. Now today, we wait for the babiy arrival due in three weeks. And I wonder okay "Ann" it's your turn to live your life now.. and now I wonder how to adjust and start a new life. I'm so glad to report my niece has found mercy, forgiveness, Joy like she never had, and an open heart ❤️ to receive and give love. The mystery of wonder.. 💕
Oh Ann, what a lovely heart you have. I understand the vacancy of your days now. It is not easy to reinvent oneself after having such meaning and purpose there, right there, in front of you. I am also at this point, for reasons both similar and different than yours. I remind myself there is still time to dream my own dreams. I hope the same for you, Ann. Bless you!
Yes. Reinventing ourselves opens a new window of possibilities, new growth than you ever knew. And most of all self-love is the best thing we can do for ourselves. I'm ready! Peace Jacqueline. Blessings over u. 🙏🏼
I was just thinking recently of how my mother was not able to love me unconditionally(or at least I felt that to be true), but my aunt was.
I don’t feel judgment as much as awe for the full love from my aunt. I remember expressing incomprehension to my her, basically saying, “ How can this be? How could it not end? I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. . .” She said, “You’d have to do something REALLY terrible for this to change.” Then I was able to believe it. Her love was so clear, so certain, and immeasurably nourishing.
Yes. Showing up everyday walking together NOT walking ahead was a big part of it. I'm so proud of the outcome of her.. I worried her anger would weigh heavy. But I stayed True and held onto the steering wheel. All my love finally resonates.. and now she sees she's not responsible for her mom & dad mishaps. 🙏🏼 I'm her Mama-Tia. ✨️
Oct 29, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
The wonder of the sudden sun after a week of rain, and me being able to walk with my walker through the golden glittering leaves on the pavement. The wonder of my body moving through it all. The wonder of threads going through my hands making sweaters for my dear ones who are cold and afraid in this seemingly endless war. Threading love and warmth through the sweaters, for extras.
You beautifully articulate something I often feel--layers of wonder. It's not just that the leaves are golden and glittering on the pavement. It's that your body is moving through it all. ❤️❤️❤️
Oct 29, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
Healing is wondrous. A gate fell on my foot the end of April and I lost my toenail. Gone. And now it’s almost grown back. I’ve watched it grow across the vulnerable nail bed with wonder. We are able to heal. Physically from loss and spiritually from being harmed and mentally from losing hope. It’s wondrous.
Oct 29, 2023Liked by Carmen Radley, Suleika Jaouad
The wonder of waking up each morning! The wonder of being alive! The wonder of falling in love! The wonder of beautiful music! The wonder of grief, pain, tears falling from my eyes down my cheeks! The wonder of a little baby, a puppy, the earth and sky! The wonder of making love, orgasms! Oh the wonder of being alive!
Oct 29, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
Wonder. I feel nourished and inspired by the energy of wonder. This current horror in Palestine and Israel fills me with so much sadness. I have family in Israel, and friends in Palestine. In 2016 I spent a month visiting both countries.as a musician. Through music I met kind and generous, people and experienced a wonderful magic over and over, in both countries. Today I am writing about the wonder of a growing compassion for everyone involved in this human disaster. As the news focuses on the unfolding horror, I am amazed at the human cruelty, and yet, the momentum to cultivate a deeper compassion, for everyone involved. 🏮
Oct 29, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
“Writing is a kind of revenge against circumstance too: bad luck, loss, pain. If you make something out of it, then you’ve no longer been bested by these events.”
A veritable antidote. This is so key - it ventilates the ache. I think for me, action or doing is a revenge against circumstance; whether it's a focused cleaning, wild abandon in the kitchen - or setting out on a long walk - mindful movement helps me loosen the knots. As for something I find wondrous, strange, beautiful and/or unlikely, I would say silent, brief connection with someone; that lingering look, unspoken words (yet you know what they are), or a decided gesture - all make me feel less alone and more alive.
Oct 29, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
Write about something that you find wondrous. Something strange, beautiful, unlikely, or all of the above. If you’d like, use this as an entry point: “I return to this point of wonder.”
Thank you Katie and Suleika. Katie, your poem is lovely. And todays prompt feels light. It’s beautiful finding wonder in the everyday. Wonder is everywhere around us. I find wonder in the natural world. With the mild weather we have been having I’ve given myself an excuse to take little day trips to the ocean. A week ago I landed in Westerly Rhode Island. It was a truly wondrous day. Nature revealed so many gifts that day. The sky and clouds were beautiful and otherworldly. Driving by the shore I spotted an egret in a tree in a pond. I stopped and a another car stopped on the opposite side of the road. It was like this stranger and I were of the same mind. We both drove off at the same time and the man on the opposite side gave me a peace sigh, I returned his peace sign. This felt wondrous. I stopped at a canal to watch the cormorants. I was watching them drift with the current. But they were drifting facing the way the came. That’s faith! Just the wonder of letting go and trusting. Nature showed me so many wonders that day. I spotted a kite flying out of the corner of my eye. I’m was struck by the constant movement around me. Life is fluid. Nothing is the same from one second to the next. How wonderful it would be to have the faith of the cormorant and just “go with the flow”. To trust is the world and ourselves. Just just find beauty in each other as we are part of nature to0. We just forget this! I loved this day so much.
Oct 29, 2023Liked by Carmen Radley, Suleika Jaouad
I wonder, as I am stopped in my tracks, at the red stripe on the blackbird. Who put that red stripe on your wing blackbird? Was it the same artist who put the "tiger" stripe in my son's left eye? The wonder of it all brings me to a knowing that is deep.
Oct 29, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
“... train myself to find in the midst of hell/ what isn’t hell.”
Waking up with a cup of coffee to see the exquisite beauty of your writing. Walking at dusk in silence with full moon rising, “sun down, yellow moon.” Waiting to learn after a night of partying in Brooklyn that my daughters are all right. Giving thanks.
Oct 29, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
I wonder about funny things...like the fact that we are born with seat cushions attached on the back, or that we all prostrate ourselves and go unconscious every single day, or that we have these hilarious alien-like things sticking out of the sides of our heads that allow us to hear sound and we don't even look at each other and laugh about them. Yesterday I was outside of my home in Montana where it is now very winter-like already. I heard a noise and since one of my alien-like appendages doesn't work, I can't tell where sound comes from. But this sound got louder and louder and I realized it was the sound of honking geese so I looked up. There they were, in perfect formation, flying towards a warmer clime, calling out directions and maybe even, in my imagination, some juicy gossip about Goose Mable on the back left of the formation. I return to this point of wonder.
Oct 29, 2023Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Carmen Radley
I realized-although I knew this that my concept of family was limiting. A few days back, I really saw the contentment of my kitty Olympia and my pup Bodhi. They are family---then I wondered about a girl who is somewhere in Gaza and every picture of her had a tiny pup... sigh.
Oct 29, 2023Liked by Carmen Radley, Suleika Jaouad
At 3:00 AM this morning I was sitting in my kitchen in my fuzzy pink robe, with the floor heater taking the chill off my legs, looking out the window at my backyard bathed in the glow of the full moon. It’s otherworldly the way the landscape appears in moonlight: the deep black of the moon shadows against the silvery light, the way every tree and shrub and fence takes on a strange and different look from the same view in sunlight. It’s wonderful.
My husband and I just returned from three weeks in France, hence the jet lag that had me up enjoying the moonlight instead of snuggled down and asleep in bed. We spent every day driving the backroads of rural areas of the south, marveling at the magnificent and peaceful views. The rugged cliffs that tower over the Lot River; the sweeping views of the Gers region, with hills and valleys and fields that made us feel like we were traveling inside a painting; the stone cottages and barns and exquisite little bories, dry stone huts, each one unique and built by rugged hands long ago; tiny villages with their narrow winding streets, often with a church or chateau whose towers reached for the sky.
I realized at some point during our travels that I was feeling something I hadn’t felt in the six years since my diagnosis--that child-like wonder I used to feel before pain and illness wiped it away. It has seemed that happiness and appreciation of beauty are now only on the surface, not deep and exciting like before. I thought I could never experience that depth of wonder again. But I did.
It’s good to know that the tight ball of anxiety, fear, and dread that has wedged itself into my spirit can soften and unfold, allowing me to more fully experience all the beauty that life has to offer. It gives me hope that what I thought was dead in me is alive after all.
Oct 29, 2023Liked by Carmen Radley, Suleika Jaouad
As I'm propped up in bed sipping tea and reading this latest one of the many wondrous and thought provoking newsletters, it strikes me just how easy it is to access information in these times we live in. A simple touch of a finger on a small device opens up an infinite world of knowledge. Truly awe inspiring. Needless to say we all know the seriously negative impacts of this information age but we fortunately have the freedom to choose what we engage ourselves in.
Maybe on this Sunday, we could all light a candle and say a little prayer for peace and healing for all of the people suffering in the midst of war.
Oct 29, 2023Liked by Carmen Radley, Suleika Jaouad
I return to this point of wonder: the wondrous full moon over my left shoulder, and the glorious red blazing sunset over my right as I stand in the driveway, getting into my car. I pause, I breathe, this daily wonder that displays itself in so many varied and dramatic ways.
Just when I think humans are driven only by power and money, I am reminded of this truth: the human spirit is kind and full of light.
I fell flat on my face last week. It happened so fast yet in slow motion. I could see the contents of my tote bag, computer and all, tumble out like jacks just before being scooped up with a jack ball.
Embarrassed and writhing with pain, I saw several people hurrying past on their way to meet deadlines and do important things. Then, I realized that I could not lift my right leg. For an inth of second, I felt alone and scared until two women gathered the contents of my bag and kneeled beside me in the middle of the street. One woman rubbed my shoulders tenderly, and the other said, “We will stay with you until an ambulance comes. Would you like for us to call you an ambulance?”
And stay, they did for at least fifteen minutes. I didn't need an ambulance, but for someone who doesn't ask for help, I was humbled by their kindness and patience with me. Before I hobbled off, we were all laughing at each other's embarrassing moments. For those fifteen minutes, I was well cared for by these wonderful humans.
I'm so glad you're OK Tammy!
Something similar happened to me daydreaming crossing a road in London. All of a sudden I was the old lady in the street! Very humbling as you say…and touched with human kindness in my case too - young people helping me up, sitting with me, getting me water…wonderful humans are out there. Thanks for the reminder...
Oh no! Ouch! I hope you’re ok. I’m glad for the ladies who stayed with you.
I raised my niece since she was seven years old. And now she's twenty-five she moved out this past May. In September we had two consecutive weeks of celebration her wedding , then a baby 👶 shower. I was filled with so much wonder how through the years of raising my beautiful niece, and the struggles that came with it.. her feeling abandoned, and neglected from her parents. But through it all I kept praying, stayed present, and through all the testing she gave me I loved her unconditionally. Now today, we wait for the babiy arrival due in three weeks. And I wonder okay "Ann" it's your turn to live your life now.. and now I wonder how to adjust and start a new life. I'm so glad to report my niece has found mercy, forgiveness, Joy like she never had, and an open heart ❤️ to receive and give love. The mystery of wonder.. 💕
Beautiful and important reflections during a time of great celebration. ❤️
Oh Ann, what a lovely heart you have. I understand the vacancy of your days now. It is not easy to reinvent oneself after having such meaning and purpose there, right there, in front of you. I am also at this point, for reasons both similar and different than yours. I remind myself there is still time to dream my own dreams. I hope the same for you, Ann. Bless you!
Yes. Reinventing ourselves opens a new window of possibilities, new growth than you ever knew. And most of all self-love is the best thing we can do for ourselves. I'm ready! Peace Jacqueline. Blessings over u. 🙏🏼
You are a wonderful aunt!
I was just thinking recently of how my mother was not able to love me unconditionally(or at least I felt that to be true), but my aunt was.
I don’t feel judgment as much as awe for the full love from my aunt. I remember expressing incomprehension to my her, basically saying, “ How can this be? How could it not end? I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. . .” She said, “You’d have to do something REALLY terrible for this to change.” Then I was able to believe it. Her love was so clear, so certain, and immeasurably nourishing.
Yes. Showing up everyday walking together NOT walking ahead was a big part of it. I'm so proud of the outcome of her.. I worried her anger would weigh heavy. But I stayed True and held onto the steering wheel. All my love finally resonates.. and now she sees she's not responsible for her mom & dad mishaps. 🙏🏼 I'm her Mama-Tia. ✨️
The wonder of the sudden sun after a week of rain, and me being able to walk with my walker through the golden glittering leaves on the pavement. The wonder of my body moving through it all. The wonder of threads going through my hands making sweaters for my dear ones who are cold and afraid in this seemingly endless war. Threading love and warmth through the sweaters, for extras.
You beautifully articulate something I often feel--layers of wonder. It's not just that the leaves are golden and glittering on the pavement. It's that your body is moving through it all. ❤️❤️❤️
This is beautiful. Especially touching is the love you put into joining threads to calm fears. Beautiful!💜
Healing is wondrous. A gate fell on my foot the end of April and I lost my toenail. Gone. And now it’s almost grown back. I’ve watched it grow across the vulnerable nail bed with wonder. We are able to heal. Physically from loss and spiritually from being harmed and mentally from losing hope. It’s wondrous.
The wonder of waking up each morning! The wonder of being alive! The wonder of falling in love! The wonder of beautiful music! The wonder of grief, pain, tears falling from my eyes down my cheeks! The wonder of a little baby, a puppy, the earth and sky! The wonder of making love, orgasms! Oh the wonder of being alive!
Amen!!!!
Wonder. I feel nourished and inspired by the energy of wonder. This current horror in Palestine and Israel fills me with so much sadness. I have family in Israel, and friends in Palestine. In 2016 I spent a month visiting both countries.as a musician. Through music I met kind and generous, people and experienced a wonderful magic over and over, in both countries. Today I am writing about the wonder of a growing compassion for everyone involved in this human disaster. As the news focuses on the unfolding horror, I am amazed at the human cruelty, and yet, the momentum to cultivate a deeper compassion, for everyone involved. 🏮
One hopes ...sigh
“Writing is a kind of revenge against circumstance too: bad luck, loss, pain. If you make something out of it, then you’ve no longer been bested by these events.”
A veritable antidote. This is so key - it ventilates the ache. I think for me, action or doing is a revenge against circumstance; whether it's a focused cleaning, wild abandon in the kitchen - or setting out on a long walk - mindful movement helps me loosen the knots. As for something I find wondrous, strange, beautiful and/or unlikely, I would say silent, brief connection with someone; that lingering look, unspoken words (yet you know what they are), or a decided gesture - all make me feel less alone and more alive.
It ventilates the ache. ❤️❤️❤️
Exquisite.
I wonder as I look in my 6 month old granddaughter’s eyes and get lost in the gray blue eyes to calm.
Write about something that you find wondrous. Something strange, beautiful, unlikely, or all of the above. If you’d like, use this as an entry point: “I return to this point of wonder.”
Thank you Katie and Suleika. Katie, your poem is lovely. And todays prompt feels light. It’s beautiful finding wonder in the everyday. Wonder is everywhere around us. I find wonder in the natural world. With the mild weather we have been having I’ve given myself an excuse to take little day trips to the ocean. A week ago I landed in Westerly Rhode Island. It was a truly wondrous day. Nature revealed so many gifts that day. The sky and clouds were beautiful and otherworldly. Driving by the shore I spotted an egret in a tree in a pond. I stopped and a another car stopped on the opposite side of the road. It was like this stranger and I were of the same mind. We both drove off at the same time and the man on the opposite side gave me a peace sigh, I returned his peace sign. This felt wondrous. I stopped at a canal to watch the cormorants. I was watching them drift with the current. But they were drifting facing the way the came. That’s faith! Just the wonder of letting go and trusting. Nature showed me so many wonders that day. I spotted a kite flying out of the corner of my eye. I’m was struck by the constant movement around me. Life is fluid. Nothing is the same from one second to the next. How wonderful it would be to have the faith of the cormorant and just “go with the flow”. To trust is the world and ourselves. Just just find beauty in each other as we are part of nature to0. We just forget this! I loved this day so much.
The peace signs! ❤️
✌🏻
I love this - you took me with you. Beautiful! Thank you.
I wonder, as I am stopped in my tracks, at the red stripe on the blackbird. Who put that red stripe on your wing blackbird? Was it the same artist who put the "tiger" stripe in my son's left eye? The wonder of it all brings me to a knowing that is deep.
“... train myself to find in the midst of hell/ what isn’t hell.”
Waking up with a cup of coffee to see the exquisite beauty of your writing. Walking at dusk in silence with full moon rising, “sun down, yellow moon.” Waiting to learn after a night of partying in Brooklyn that my daughters are all right. Giving thanks.
I wonder about funny things...like the fact that we are born with seat cushions attached on the back, or that we all prostrate ourselves and go unconscious every single day, or that we have these hilarious alien-like things sticking out of the sides of our heads that allow us to hear sound and we don't even look at each other and laugh about them. Yesterday I was outside of my home in Montana where it is now very winter-like already. I heard a noise and since one of my alien-like appendages doesn't work, I can't tell where sound comes from. But this sound got louder and louder and I realized it was the sound of honking geese so I looked up. There they were, in perfect formation, flying towards a warmer clime, calling out directions and maybe even, in my imagination, some juicy gossip about Goose Mable on the back left of the formation. I return to this point of wonder.
So delightfully funny. "...one of my alien-like appendages doesn't work." Thanks for brightening my morning.
We all need brightening these days. You're welcome!
Was Mother Goose with them?
I choose to believe she was! 🤣
And the funny predicaments that just happen and keep us humble with laughter.
(My pumpkin got stuck under my car seat en route to a party!)
I realized-although I knew this that my concept of family was limiting. A few days back, I really saw the contentment of my kitty Olympia and my pup Bodhi. They are family---then I wondered about a girl who is somewhere in Gaza and every picture of her had a tiny pup... sigh.
Those faces, that are precious beings, that I wish I could rock in my arms. I wonder about them too.😞
At 3:00 AM this morning I was sitting in my kitchen in my fuzzy pink robe, with the floor heater taking the chill off my legs, looking out the window at my backyard bathed in the glow of the full moon. It’s otherworldly the way the landscape appears in moonlight: the deep black of the moon shadows against the silvery light, the way every tree and shrub and fence takes on a strange and different look from the same view in sunlight. It’s wonderful.
My husband and I just returned from three weeks in France, hence the jet lag that had me up enjoying the moonlight instead of snuggled down and asleep in bed. We spent every day driving the backroads of rural areas of the south, marveling at the magnificent and peaceful views. The rugged cliffs that tower over the Lot River; the sweeping views of the Gers region, with hills and valleys and fields that made us feel like we were traveling inside a painting; the stone cottages and barns and exquisite little bories, dry stone huts, each one unique and built by rugged hands long ago; tiny villages with their narrow winding streets, often with a church or chateau whose towers reached for the sky.
I realized at some point during our travels that I was feeling something I hadn’t felt in the six years since my diagnosis--that child-like wonder I used to feel before pain and illness wiped it away. It has seemed that happiness and appreciation of beauty are now only on the surface, not deep and exciting like before. I thought I could never experience that depth of wonder again. But I did.
It’s good to know that the tight ball of anxiety, fear, and dread that has wedged itself into my spirit can soften and unfold, allowing me to more fully experience all the beauty that life has to offer. It gives me hope that what I thought was dead in me is alive after all.
It wasn't gone, it was just waiting to unfold again. ❤️❤️❤️
Oh my. I wish you JOY welling up and filling your heart with hope and gratitude. And thank you for that last sentence. Beautiful.
As I'm propped up in bed sipping tea and reading this latest one of the many wondrous and thought provoking newsletters, it strikes me just how easy it is to access information in these times we live in. A simple touch of a finger on a small device opens up an infinite world of knowledge. Truly awe inspiring. Needless to say we all know the seriously negative impacts of this information age but we fortunately have the freedom to choose what we engage ourselves in.
Maybe on this Sunday, we could all light a candle and say a little prayer for peace and healing for all of the people suffering in the midst of war.
I return to this point of wonder: the wondrous full moon over my left shoulder, and the glorious red blazing sunset over my right as I stand in the driveway, getting into my car. I pause, I breathe, this daily wonder that displays itself in so many varied and dramatic ways.