Daily Nourishment for May 25: What Nature Has to Offer Us
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 40 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Pause.
Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale.
Prompt.
Watch these short Instagram Reels from my friend Holly Carlisle about her Seasonal Sketches with flowers and grasses other growing things.
I love this contemplative creative practice so much and I’m thankful for the short informational videos she made.
Another video that shows some of her process for one of her early spring seasonal sketches.
Practice.
Go outside.
Find 15 stems of something, anything, from your garden or yard or a common area.
Or gather 15 leaves. Or 15 rocks.
Or you can buy some stems from Trader Joes. It’s fine.
Or. Google what’s blooming locally right now.
Using Holly’s guidance in the videos linked above, make or draw a seasonal sketch of some sort. Don’t think too much about the result, but give your attention to the process and what this creative practice stirs in you.
Want More?
Grab a cup of coffee or another beverage and explore more from Holly’s Instagram account.
Also, Here’s a Poem for Memorial Day:
Ode for Memorial Day
By Paul Laurence Dunbar, Published in 1896
Done are the toils and the wearisome marches,
Done is the summons of bugle and drum.
Softly and sweetly the sky overarches,
Shelt’ring a land where Rebellion is dumb.
Dark were the days of the country’s derangement,
Sad were the hours when the conflict was on,
But through the gloom of fraternal estrangement
God sent his light, and we welcome the dawn.
O’er the expanse of our mighty dominions,
Sweeping away to the uttermost parts,
Peace, the wide-flying, on untiring pinions,
Bringeth her message of joy to our hearts.
Ah, but this joy which our minds cannot measure,
What did it cost for our fathers to gain!
Bought at the price of the heart’s dearest treasure,
Born out of travail and sorrow and pain;
Born in the battle where fleet Death was flying,
Slaying with sabre-stroke bloody and fell;
Born where the heroes and martyrs were dying,
Torn by the fury of bullet and shell.
Ah, but the day is past; silent the rattle,
And the confusion that followed the fight.
Peace to the heroes who died in the battle,
Martyrs to truth and the crowning of Right!
Out of the blood of a conflict fraternal,
Out of the dust and dimness of death,
Burst into blossoms of glory eternal
Flowers that sweeten the world with the breath.
Flowers of charity, peace, and devotion
Bloom in the hearts that are empty of strife;
Love that is boundless and broad as the ocean
Leaps into beauty and fullness of life.
So, with the singing of paeans and chorals,
And with the flag flashing high in the sun,
Place on the graves of our heroes the laurels
Which their unfaltering valor has won!
*
Become an SDW Insider and reserve your copy of Spiritual Direction for Writers: Everyday Rituals for Your Writing Life AND receive access to the All of Life Is the Writing Life Deep Dive online course—a preorder perk that explores how the mantra “All of life is the writing life” shows up in the Spiritual Direction for Writers book.
SDW Book Notes—A place for book preorder links, updates, resources, notes, and musings
Group Spiritual Direction for Creative Souls
Flourish Anyway with Rhythms, Rituals, & Retreats
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
*Please help us protect our intellectual property, our creative process, and the integrity of our work. Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment is covered under the Spiritual Direction for Writers® trademark. You are welcome to share this link with others, but any other use (written or spoken) is prohibited without written permission from Charlotte Donlon.