Donna Brooks, LCSW

01/03/2026

Welcome what you need.

12/24/2025

It is official: I have moved out of the Crystal Street Space and am now just up the road on Route 14, where “Crystal Street” turns into “Main Street.”

10 W. Main St.
(Corner of Rt. 14 & First St.)
Cary, IL
Suite 201 B

Photo…new office work in progress.

12/21/2025

A Prayer On the
Winter Solstice

Oh day of least light and longest night,
teach me what I need to know about darkness.
Help me see beyond
my fear
to the natural illumination that’s always here,
within and all around me.
May I be rooted in the
ground of being and as the days grow longer,
may I celebrate the wondrous gifts of life and love and openness
to transformation.
Today, the boundary between this world and the divine is especially thin.
May I be quiet enough inside to receive whatever the mystery offers me
and send my gratitude out to the solstice sun and stars, out to the presence that cannot be seen, but is forever with me.

-Danna Faulds

12/15/2025

The candles lit honoring loss and love at tonight’s Blue Christmas gathering for good souls navigating grief amidst the holidays. Thanks to Lisa Orris and Grief Guide for hosting the gathering and welcoming me to share a bit of music. 🩵

12/06/2025

Every home deserves a blessing…we are worthy of receiving blessings.

Home Blessing

May this house shelter your life.
When you come in home here,
May all the weight of the world
Fall from your shoulders.

May your heart be tranquil here,
Blessed by peace the world cannot give.

May this home be a lucky place,
Where the graces your life desires
Always find the pathway to your door.

May nothing destructive
Ever cross your threshold.

May this be a safe place
Full of understanding and acceptance,
Where you can be as you are,
Without the need of a mask
Of pretense of image.

May this home be a place of discovery.
Where the possibilities that sleep
In the clay of your soul can emerge
To deepen and refine your vision
For all that is yet to come to birth.

May it be a house of courage,
Where healing and growth are loved,
Where dignity and forgiveness prevail;
A home where patience of spirit is prized,
And the sight of the destination is never lost
Though the journey be difficult and slow.

May there be great delight around this hearth.
May it be a house of welcome
For the broken and diminished.

May you have the eyes to see
That no visitor arrives without a gift
And no guest leaves without a blessing.

by John O'Donohue, a Celtic priest and poet

12/02/2025

Connect with your resourcefulness. Questions to contemplate posed by author Suleika Jaouad:

What’s holding us together right now?
Where are we finding beauty and hope, even in brief flashes?
What do we cling to when the world feels sharp and precarious?

11/27/2025

May you have many moments today and during this holiday season to turn inward and breathe some moments of blessed presence and gratitude!

11/26/2025

A GRATITUDE mandala. Created with all the good souls who have visited my office in the Crystal Street space in the last week. Each guest added items to the Mandala along with gratitude. Thankful for the work I do.

11/18/2025

After today's meditation, I was remembering this quote as we tended to the temple. This was something I shared after being in my office space for about one month. Wrapping up my stay at the end of December.

In Zen they say there are only two things: You sit, and you sweep the garden. And it doesn’t matter how big the garden is. As you quiet your mind and listen to your heart, you discover that your spirit will not be satisfied unless you also tend your garden. Pick something you care about.

Be and be love in action.

11/01/2025

Happy Halloween!

10/24/2025

Just finished this book and the short daily journal entries plus writing prompts enclosed in it. This was an excellent way to reflect on various aspects of life and engage in journal writing first thing in the morning. Enjoyed it very much, and intend to keep creative morning habits going.

10/09/2025

The Cure for Sorrow
By Jan Richardson

Because I do not know
Any medicine for grief
But to let ourselves
Grieve.

Because I do not know
Any cure for sorrow
But to let ourselves
Sorrow.

Because I do not know
Any remedy
But to let the heart break,
To let it fall open, then
To let it fall open
Still more.

Because I do not know
How to mend
The unmendable,
Unfixable,
Unhealable wound
That keeps finding
Itself healed
As we tend it,
As we follow
The line of it,
As we let it lead us
On the path
It knows.