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Shirley Lynn Martin, Elmira, ON (2026)

03/08/2026

Happy Sunday! Your poem of the week...

When Great Trees Fall

When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.

When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.

Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.

by one of my favourites, Maya Angelou

03/07/2026

Happy Saturday! Peace recognizes peace. Our spirits recognize goodness and compassion, even when in silent movement.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/174CNnMp2m/?mibextid=wwXIfr

03/06/2026

Happy Friday!

This time of year is like a bridge between this and that, between cold and warming, between winter storms and spring thunderstorms. A bridge between two realities, or multiple possibilities. Building connections with others, between your ideas and theirs, between what you value and what they value is something that requires attentiveness, or presence, honesty, humility, respect for the process and the potential outcome.

I remember an engineer client once telling me that building bridges requires humility, courage and lots of planning because a badly built bridge can cause great chaos and harm (and she recounted the great tragedy of a bridge collapsing in Quebec, 1907).1 Neither can you short cut the process or the plan. You can change the plan with necessary updates according to new information, but shortcutting steps in building a bridge is dangerous to the users.

One of the strengths that workplaces, communities, even nations seek to amplify is the talent and benefit of diversity. Diversity is a beautiful expression. Having 4 generations work in one company is certainly an expression of diversity, just as there is with people who have identities rooted in different nations and values. Such environments can also be equally a place for conflict as celebration. In this way, building bridges of connection is like building trust. You can only do it one brick at a time or one steel bar in the frame at a time. You can't miss steps or choose not to include certain bricks or relevant framing pieces. Such is the case in relationship building and building bridges across generations or across gaps and conflicts. Every step must be taken, with care and mindfulness.

With our society focused on the first, the fastest, the cheapest, the most expedient, the world of bridge building, of trust building may seem out of step and too complex and time consuming. However, betrayal that arises of missing steps, short cutting processes or minimizing diverse values is much more costly, harmful and destructive for much longer.

So today, this month, watch nature. Watch the steady, slow and care-full way that nature creates bridges and makes herself trustworthy by staying consistent to the laws of the land, of the cosmos. Learn the art of becoming trustworthy. This is one of the most powerful skills in bridge building. Peace.

1. Read the full story of the collapsing bridge here where doing it the best and cheapest became part of the haunting disaster....https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quebec-bridge-disaster-feature

03/05/2026

Happy Thursday!

Breathing in, I calm my body.
Breathing out, I smile.
Dwelling in the present moment
I know this is a wonderful moment.

"Breathing in, I calm my body." Reciting this line is like drinking a glass of ice water-you feel the cold, the freshness, permeate your body. When I breathe in and recite this line, I actually feel the breathing calming my body, calming my mind.
"Breathing out, I smile." You know the effect of a smile. A smile can relax hundreds of muscles in your face, and relax your nervous system. A smile makes you master of yourself. That is why the Buddhas and bodhisattvas are always smiling. When
you smile, you realize the wonder of the smile.

“Dwelling in the present moment." While I sit here, I don't think of somewhere else, of the future or the past. I sit here, and I know where I am. This is very important....

We tend to postpone being alive to the future, the distant future, we don't know when. Now is not the
moment to be alive. We may never be alive at all in our entire life. Therefore, the technique, if we have to speak of a technique, is to be in the present moment, to be aware that we are here and now, and the only moment to be alive is the present moment.

"I know this is a wonderful moment." This is the only moment that is real. To be here and now, and enjoy the present moment is our most important task.

"Calming, Smiling. Present moment, Wonderful moment."
I hope you will try it.

Thich Nhat Hahn
https://wtf.tw/ref/nhat_hanh_being_peace.pdf

03/04/2026

Happy Wednesday!
When show up to our true nature and create a better relationship with the ecosystem of all the relationships in our lives, we will have to find the courage for creative resistance .

“And I’m also restless and dislocated because even at 63 years of age, the suddenness of the return of the light at this time of year still surprises me. It’s still light at 6 pm and I’m outraged. Although I’m looking forward to spring, I hate to see the dark so rapidly slipping away; it feels as if my winter cloak of invisibility and creative intensity is leaving along with it. I always hold on to my darkening days for far too long.

All of this insistent spring in the air reminds me of a quote from Chilean poet Pablo Neruda: ‘You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep Spring from coming.’ Neruda was a poet of resistance, whose experience of the Spanish Civil War and the fight against fascism profoundly shaped him. He believed that writing, not just fighting, was fuel for the resistance, and that’s the form that his own resistance took. Because writing captures the imagination and so can inspire change, and inspiration to live differently is so necessary as we face an era of climate disruption and increasing social and political polarisation. Writing can’t stop atrocities, but it can certainly wake us up to new ways of being.

So don’t ever think that writers like me aren’t part of the resistance. We are. But what is it exactly that we’re resisting with our words and our stories? What difference do we imagine they can possibly make? Well, my own form of resistance is to challenge the way the world has become, and the ways we’ve become that allow the ongoing catastrophes and atrocities to continue, by challenging the myths we live by and encouraging the development and adoption of better ones. Yes – my form of resistance absolutely involves stories that help us imagine new, healthier ways of being. Because history (as well as psychology) demonstrates the same simple fact again and again: you can’t change the world for the better unless people change their way of perceiving that world and their relationship to it, and so change their way of being in it. Unless people question what they’ve been told they should want by the overculture, and begin to want something better. Enduring and meaningful change comes from the grassroots, from the bottom up. People have to believe in it, and to want to live with it. That begins with their ability to imagine it. And that’s where I come in.

This last week marks the sixth anniversary of the publication of my book The Enchanted Life – the book that gave name to this Substack (and to the blog which for many years preceded it). Back then, not everyone was entirely enamoured with my proclivity for the word enchantment; one prominent storyteller soon began to declare that stories ‘weren’t about enchantment, they were about waking up’. This amused me, because ‘waking up’ was precisely my definition of enchantment, which went on a bit but ended with this: ‘Above all, to live an enchanted life is to fall in love with the world all over again. This is an active choice, a leap of faith which is necessary not just for our own sakes, but for the sake of the wide, wild Earth in whose being and becoming we are so profoundly and beautifully entangled.’ At the end of the book, I wrote a ten-point ‘Manifesto for the enchanted life’ which was precisely about waking up. And I mean waking up to our power to move beyond the rage and despair and imagine the world and our place in it differently, above all.

So if you were to ask me today how I’m resisting those catastrophes and the atrocities, I’d tell you this: I’m trying to change the world one word, one story, one image at a time. By offering ways of falling in love with the world all over again, and falling in love with ourselves and so with each other all over again. And I’d note, as an important aside, that there is no definitive, correct, single way to resist, just as there is no definitive, correct, single way for the world to unfold, or for a person to become who they were always meant to become. There are many paths of resistance, and each of us must choose the path we are best fitted for. The path that speaks to our calling, to our own unique path with heart. The path that recognises who we are, and the gifts that we bring to the world.”

Sharon Blackie

https://sharonblackie.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

03/03/2026

Happy Tuesday! As we gather in Reiki community today, may the peace and light of the Universe sustain us, bring healing to us and flow out from us and lift us up in joy and love.

“I came across a poem this week that stopped me in my tracks. I was reading the Tibetan Book Of The Dead when the eight lines below jumped off the page.

I’ve never seen a description of “source” energy written on paper so succinctly. This is the epitome of what we connect with in deep meditation – when we are truly awake.

These words are now printed on the wall next to my desk:

Remember the clear light,

The pure clear white light.

From which everything in the universe comes,

To which everything in the universe returns;

The original nature of your own mind.

The natural state of the universe unmanifest.

Let go into the clear light, trust it, merge with it.

It is your own true nature, it is home.”

- The Tibetan Book Of The Dead

Never forget who you really are.

Amazing Earthwork & Photo by

03/02/2026

Happy Monday!

~Peace Begins With Me~

“As Buddha taught (over 2,500 years ago), how we think affects how we feel, determining the quality of our inner life. Then, like ripples in water, we share our states of mind with others, influencing their experiences.

If we are calm and mindful our awareness becomes still, like a clear lake or mirror. As we become more peaceful inside, we feel more grateful for (and connected to) other living beings, to Nature and the Universe.

With this deeper connection feelings of happiness arise, we feel safe and loving. That in turn becomes the frequency we bring to our interactions and relationships.

This is very important to understand. All consciousnesses are connected, at both surface and deep levels. The emotional quality of our consciousness is much more important than any words we may share.

The peace we cultivate will spread out, naturally. The more peace and love we feel within, the more we become instruments of peace, sharing that frequency with others.

On the other hand, if we tune our minds to conflicts and fear then our inner world starts to spin negative thoughts and emotions. We become angry, afraid, disconnected and feel unsafe.

We then bring that mindset to our relationships and interactions, passing our fears along, like a flu or virus. This is the choice we make, to share peace or anger, calmness or anxiety, love or fear.

This is what Buddha understood and taught the world. There is a kind of physics of consciousness at work here, the peace and love (or fear/anger) we share has a ripple effect..”

~Christopher
Tao & Zen

~ Choices ~

"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with an impure mind and trouble will follow you, as the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.

Speak or act with a pure mind and happiness will follow you as your shadow, unshakable. In this world hate never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, ancient and inexhaustible."

~ Buddha ~
The Dhammapada

03/01/2026

Happy Sunday!

March: Month of Compassion as our natural condition!

In the Metta Sutta, the Buddha beautifully tells his disciples that just as a mother feels a natural, unconditional love for her child, so should we cultivate that sentiment toward all beings without any exception, whether they are near or far, friends or enemies.

The first step is to have a deep conviction that compassion is a very important part of our nature. This is particularly important for people in the West today, who are conditioned to believe that the ultimate motivation driving all of our behavior is self-interest.

We are hard wired to be compassionate.

Thupten Jinpa, translator for Dalai Lama.

02/28/2026

Happy Saturday!
Your instinct will lead you home. Trust it.

"Dear You,

I get frustrated with my dog. His instinct is so strong that it often takes over his more rational sensibilities.

Why has the neighbor’s cat become his archnemesis? Why do the children on the beach look like sheep to him and what makes him gather each one up with an invisible thread until they are all huddled together like a ball of yarn?

And why on earth does he look so satisfied with himself when the postman decides to throw packages over the fence rather than risk it?!

In his sleep, my dog is free to bark, round up, and snap at the heels of anything his fantasy conjures up but during the day his behavior is heavily curtailed, and he is not quite himself because of it.

Instinct. It’s certainly not tameable in any of us and yet we are disappointed when we act on it.

When there’s an instinctual need for more space, more curiosity, more creativity, more independence, and more vital fire in one’s life, we get disappointed with ourselves for needing what we need. This is because our needs don’t usually appease someone else’s expectations or fit in with our life’s circumstances.

However, instinct knows when it’s not being honored.

It cares very little for how patient we are, but a great deal for how often we howl. It cares very little for how long we sit at our desks, but very much for how long it’s been since our hair was dusted in cook ash.

I’ve met few so in touch with their instinct that kids were put to bed early and partners were put to tea-making, just so they could stargaze alone for an hour…

Ignored instinct makes us wonder why our morning stroll suddenly turns into a full-day hike, or why we gather stones in our pockets for projects we haven’t even planned yet. We become confused by our ‘uncivilized’ behavior, why we start to avoid the water cooler, why we forget our phones at home knowingly, why we linger out in the rain while everyone else runs for cover, or why we keep driving when we should turn off the junction for home…

Suppressed instinct makes us sit on our tails which becomes impossible when we get a whiff of gossip about a woman who went wild and sailed her kids across the Atlantic, or about that reckless man who left his job without a plan, or about those pensioners who swapped their house for a bus and traveled the songlines of a forgotten land.

It’s hard to contain an instinctual wag…

Instinct rises defiantly strong when one’s own creative needs become secondary to keeping house. Or when one’s love for the wild becomes seen as an inconvenience. Or when passion is doused in procrastination. Or when one counts their years before they dare do anything at all.

We are no different from the hound who is taught that his instincts are wrong, or that they pose a threat to what’s orderly.

And no matter how hard we keep our instincts tamed and quiet; they find us in our sleep - in order to keep us sane.

Some things we just don’t need to learn – in fact, most things we need to spend a lifetime unlearning.

At times, we too, feel like sheepdogs without sheep.

But the good thing is that we come home to ourselves through instinct. The same instinct that makes a seed into a sequoia, the caterpillar into a butterfly, the wounded human into a whole one. Gut instinct is truly stronger than all our tamings and can be used to guide us home to what is whole.

You are in constant communication with your instinctive nature despite it often going against the grain of what is expected. I’ve found that the more it grates against the culture, the smoother it will be for us.

Just as we have a psyche-instinct to walk our authentic path, we too have an imperative soul-instinct to know ourselves.

When we shift our sense of self from the ego to our essential being, we move away from thinking our way into what we need - and move through the world reliant on this deeply authentic instinct that has little social etiquette.

Rather than try and locate our instinct (psyche-instinct), it’s far wiser to try and locate who we think we are (soul-instinct) and allow authenticity to naturally swell upwards into our lives. This will ensure that we do not become uncouth or feral but move from a deeply self-willed and soulful place within.

I once met a woman in a shoe shop who had one of the greatest gifts of advice I can remember, especially from someone who wore pigtails in their grey hair…

You don’t need to find better-fitting shoes, dear, but a better road to walk barefoot on.

Perhaps I project my fears of losing contact with my instinctual self through my dog. I worry that suburbia is restricting his free spirit and that he’s becoming ‘unmanageable’. I ruminate on whether he needs more training or better discipline and I feel like he should behave more in tune with the social expectations of a rather unforgiving culture.

Or perhaps he, like me, just needs to live a life more in tune with his instinctual needs so he can be fully himself. Perhaps he is too longing to find out who he is among the rising light that reaches across the horizon rather than the rising hum of 4 am traffic.

If I can’t create this life for myself, I can certainly try for him - and perhaps I will benefit most from it. Because we seem to need the same things, although I am far less tolerant of fences…

Until then, we will have to find our flock in children, and our need to roam will have to be satiated by the local park. We will come to know ourselves amongst others who are our best sherpas back to what’s still unloved within us. We will find our way, both inwards and outwards until they eventually become one."

Sez Kristiansen

02/27/2026

Happy Friday!

In Reiki practice, a core part of the practice is to repeat in meditation and also to live the precepts. These precepts have various translations, but most basic is the following from the Komyo Reiki Do tradition :

Do not anger
Do not worry
Be grateful (for everything)
Be diligent (live your dharma)
Be kind (to all sentient beings)

Day and night repeat these precepts.

Breathe them in
Walk them
Let them live in your heart and hands
Sing them

Let them become a living meditation until they develop as a reflexive response to all that unfolds.
These are 5 simple ways if being. It’s deeply challenging to cultivate day in and day out. A life’s journey. It simultaneously requires developing mindfulness and awareness…to notice what triggers our anger and attend to the roots. To sit with our anxious/worry thoughts and allow the cause to be healed. It invites us to develop kindness—the beginnings of developing compassion and joyful connections.

To live these precepts invites forgiveness—to release the resentments and demands of the past that can’t be changed. Indeed, these precepts start with the clarity of focus—-just for today, or concisely, be here, now in this moment. Not the past ( let it go). Not the future (attend to the present and plant the seeds here, water them now for the future to arise with the concentration and right actions taken in the present.

In times when complexity and complicated chaos surrounds us, having a touchstone of simplicity that grounds, centres and aligns us with our heart, with a calm and contented state, is a gift of clarity and a connection with our purpose that keeps us healthy and peaceful.

I will be teaching Komyo Reiki Do (Level One/Shoden) again April 23-25, 2026. If you seek a way of self care , of deeper connection with your own spirit and with the Great Universe, a way of peace amidst the noise and overwhelm, connect with me.

Gassho .
Peace.

02/26/2026

Happy Thursday!

“Meditation is not what you think. You sit in absolute silence and your mind starts going over all your movies. During that process, you become so familiar with the scripts you keep in your life that you end up getting sick of them. Then you realize that the person you think you are is nothing but a complicated script you spend most of your energy on.

After a more thorough examination, you discover your personality disgusts you, and that’s because it's not really you. If you feel terrified enough about that personality, you spontaneously allow it to fade away. Then, if you're lucky, you can experience yourself without the distortion of that personality.
There's so much talk about the mechanics of happiness - psychiatry and pills, positive thinking and ideology - but I really think the mechanism is there. All you have to do is get quiet for a moment.”

~ Leonard Cohen

02/25/2026

Happy Wednesday!
celebrating Black Excellence.....

Intifada Incantation: Poem #8 for b.b.L.
BY June Jordan

I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
GENOCIDE TO STOP
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED AFFIRMATIVE
ACTION AND REACTION
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED MUSIC
OUT THE WINDOWS
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
NOBODY THIRST AND NOBODY
NOBODY COLD
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED I WANTED
JUSTICE UNDER MY NOSE
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
BOUNDARIES TO DISAPPEAR

I WANTED
NOBODY ROLL BACK THE TREES!
I WANTED
NOBODY TAKE AWAY DAYBREAK!
I WANTED
NOBODY FREEZE ALL THE PEOPLE ON THEIR
KNEES!

I WANTED YOU
I WANTED YOUR KISS ON THE SKIN OF MY SOUL
AND NOW YOU SAY YOU LOVE ME AND I STAND
DESPITE THE TRILLION TREACHERIES OF SAND
YOU SAY YOU LOVE ME AND I HOLD THE LONGING
OF THE WINTER IN MY HAND
YOU SAY YOU LOVE ME AND I COMMIT
TO FRICTION AND THE UNDERTAKING
OF THE PEARL

YOU SAY YOU LOVE ME
YOU SAY YOU LOVE ME

AND I HAVE BEGUN
I BEGIN TO BELIEVE MAYBE
MAYBE YOU DO

I AM TASTING MYSELF
IN THE MOUTH OF THE SUN

June Jordan is an African American poet
Notes:
From Directed by Desire: The Complete Poems of June Jordan (2005), Copper Canyon Press, © 2005, 2023, June M. Jordan Literary Estate Trust. Reprinted by permission.

Shirley Lynn Martin

03/08/2026

03/07/2026

03/06/2026

03/05/2026

03/04/2026

03/03/2026

03/02/2026

03/01/2026

02/28/2026

02/27/2026

02/26/2026

02/25/2026

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