Tag Archives: safety

Go Outside and Look at the Stars

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If you have a clear sky tonight go outside and take a gander at the stars. From our home, Venus looks HUGE tonight. The frogs are just starting to make their music. There’s peace and beauty all around us.

The stars help put everything in perspective for me. The universe is so much bigger than our problems – and I find that oddly reassuring. I always say hi to Mom when I look at the stars. And now I say hi to Dad, too.
– Karen

“The stars make night beautiful, and the leaflet turns naturally towards the light.”
– Mary Baker Eddy

Blue Cosmos (photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell)

A Simple and Unremarkable Perfection

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It’s a miracle of perfection.
I am warm and fed and I can hear
my loved one tapping the keys on his laptop
and clearing his throat
near me
I have chamomile tea with cream and a chunk of
sourdough bread and the wind is moving
the rain-splattered screen on the window
and making the lights behind it look like they’re dancing
I feel no pain or fear
I know I’m completely safe
and I imagine coming through some terrible danger
and finding myself in this room
and what a miracle that would seem to be
and how much I’d appreciate the simple unremarkable
perfection of it
and I am filled with gratitude.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
(excerpt from A Poem Lives on My Windowsill)

A_Poem_Lives_On_My_W_Cover_for_Kindle

No Place Safer

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In the last several days I’ve been sort of toying with the idea of moving my family and myself to New Zealand. Beautiful country. The Fellowship of the Ring was filmed there. Big mountains. Nice people. They speak English there – which would be convenient.

But then I realized that the issues that we’re dealing with here in the States are the same issues our entire world is dealing with right now – racism, sexism, bigotry, hate. This is global. We are all of us up against the wall and we each have to do our part to heal these problems from wherever we are. We can’t escape this confrontation between good and evil. There’s no place we can go that’s safer than where we already are.

And I found this realization strangely comforting.

Wherever we are – Love is there. Wherever we are – Truth is there.  Love fills all space and time. There is no place safer than where I am.

no-place-safer

Love Is With Thee

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“Fear thou not; for (Love) is with thee: be not dismayed; for (Love) is thy God: (Love) will strengthen thee; yea, (Love) will help thee; yea, (Love) will uphold thee with the right hand of Love’s righteousness.” 

– Isaiah 41:10 and I John 4:7

photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell

photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell

A Simple and Unremarkable Perfection

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It is a miracle of perfection.
I am warm and fed and I can hear
my loved one tapping the keys on his laptop
and clearing his throat
near me
I have chamomile tea with cream and a chunk of
sourdough bread and the wind is moving
the rain-splattered screen on the window
and making the lights behind it look like they’re dancing
I feel no pain or fear
I know I’m completely safe
and I imagine coming through some terrible danger
and finding myself in this room
and what a miracle that would seem to be
and how much I’d appreciate the simple unremarkable
perfection of it
and I am filled with gratitude

– Karen Molenaar Terrell

Into the Mountains…

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I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. – Psalms 121

…The world felt safe here – untouched by war, pestilence, famine – greed and hatred seemed a universe away…

into the mountains

photo of Mount Shuksan in the North Cascades by Karen Molenaar Terrell