Women at Rest

Spring 2007 Retreat Postponed to Fall 2007

After much soul-searching and with Lisa's compassionate blessing, we've postponed next month's Women at Rest & Play Retreat until this fall. New dates + yummy location TBD.

More than anything, restful living means taking good care of ourselves, and on top of everything else that's happened unexpectedly the last month -- Elliott passing, separating from my husband, buying a house, preparing to relocate myself and zena moon across the state in mid-April -- I came to realize -- I came to accept -- that doing one more big thing would be too much "more." (The actual word that emerged was cruel.)

Yesterday a wise young woman who I adore said, "It's OK not to be OK." Sometimes I feel OK, sometimes not. No matter how I'm feeling, deep down I'm discovering a quiet unshakeable truth that I *am* OK and will continue to *be* OK.

Thanks for your understanding and support as the principle of rest unfolds even more deeply in my own life.

Poetry Thursday: Daily by Naomi Shihab Nye

These shriveled seeds we plant,
corn kernel, dried bean,
poke into loosened soil,
cover over with measured fingertips

These T-shirts we fold into
perfect white squares

These tortillas we slice and fry to crisp strips
This rich egg scrambled in a gray clay bowl

This bed whose covers I straighten
smoothing edges till blue quilt fits brown blanket
and nothing hangs out

This envelope I address
so the name balances like a cloud
in the center of sky

This page I type and retype
This table I dust till the scarred wood shines
This bundle of clothes I wash and hang and wash again
like flags we share, a country so close
no one needs to name it

The days are nouns: touch them
The hands are churches that worship the world

~Naomi Shihab Nye

For more poets and poetry, visit Poetry Thursday.

(Photo pulse, originally uploaded by amma_maw.)