“In the Garden ~ Practicing the Art of Soul to Soil”
Sunday, June 6th, 2021
Gardening themes and metaphors will be abundant this Sunday! Like many of you, we’ve gotten a late start on the gardens this year, what with our snowy and rainy weather of the last couple of months (in Northern Colorado, anyway!). We’re playing catch-up now and it’s a busy time (no wonder this newsletter is late again!). It’s a ZOOM Sunday, so please RSVP if you’d like to join us (simply reply to this email) and we’ll send you the link on Saturday sometime. Now, back to the gardens!
Colleen and Mark
Quotes to ponder
“Life begins the day you start a garden.” ~ Chinese proverb
“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.” ~ Alfred Austin
“Gardening adds years to your life and life to your years.” ~ Unknown
“A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.” ~ Doug Larson
“Gardening simply does not allow one to be mentally old, because too many hopes and dreams are yet to be realized.” ~ Allan Armitage
“I grow plants for many reasons: to please my eye or to please my soul, to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty or for nostalgia, but mostly for the joy in seeing them grow.” ~ David Hobson
“I like gardening. It’s a place where I find myself when I need to lose myself.”
~ Alice Sebold
Looking Ahead/Notes of Interest
Please RSVP if you’d like to join us for our ZOOM Paths of Heart Gathering on Sunday, June 6th at 11 a.m. We’ll send a link on Saturday. Thanks!
After some discussion, we have decided that it’s time (and safe!) to move our gatherings indoors again. Several factors influenced our decision, including the amount of music equipment, chair, and general set up required as well as the unpredictability of the weather (including wind, rain, and heat as we move into the summer months). Though we love the beauty of the outdoors, we look forward to Mark playing the Steinway Grand inside and having a lot less set-up involved each week! Thanks for your understanding.
We will continue offering ZOOM meetings once a month or so and are also discussing ways we can easily record our in-person gatherings so out of town folks can at least enjoy listening to them, even if they can’t be in on the discussions. Any suggestions or help in that area are most welcome!
Upcoming Paths of Heart Schedule (Sundays, 11 a.m.) :
June 6th ~ ZOOM gathering
June 13th ~ In person, Inside
June 20th ~ In person, Inside
June 27th ~ No Paths of Heart Gathering
July 4th ~ No Paths of Heart Gathering
July 11th ~ ZOOM gathering
Request for guest presenters and musicians! ~ We’d love to get back to having members of our community (or the wider community) present a topic of their interest to our group and/or providing music or joining the “house band” on a Sunday! Please let us know if you’re interested or have ideas of other speakers/musicians you’d like to invite. A small honorarium is available.
Sending “Good Juju” and prayer ~ If anyone ever wants to receive our collective positive thoughts and prayers on a Sunday morning, please ask! We can be as specific or as anonymous as you’d like. Let us know if we can surround you and your loved ones in love and light!
“Paths of Heart” Labyrinth – What a joy it was to envision and oversee the creation of our labyrinth and Zen Garden last summer! This was intentioned to be a community space, so know that you are always welcome to drop by and walk or sit – you do not need to let us know in advance. Do note that we have experienced the outer “halo” of glass blocks to be slippery when wet, so it’s best to walk it on a dry day! We also welcome volunteers to help keep our labyrinth looking beautiful and free of debris and weeds. Thank you in advance.
Giving Opportunities – Two ways you can support Paths of Heart without costing you an extra penny are detailed below:
King Soopers Community Rewards Program – if you shop at KS and have a rewards card, you can “link” it to Paths of Heart and King Soopers will donate a portion of your dollars spent (around 5%) to our non-profit. Go to https://www.kingsoopers.com/i/community/community-rewards to sign up and link your card. Our organization name is Paths of Heart and organization number is RG782. Let us know if you want help signing up!
Amazon Smile – We do love shopping locally and very often do, but Amazon sometimes fits the bill. If you are an Amazon shopper, you can make a difference by shopping at smile.amazon.com/ch/81-4175487 to generate donations for Paths of Heart!
During this past year when we weren’t meeting often, online donations became increasingly important to our organization, and are still always gratefully accepted on our website, https://www.pathsofheart.org/donate/. You can even sign up for monthly giving, which we deeply appreciate. Thanks so much for supporting the continuation of Paths of Heart!
ation of Paths of Heart!
Gratitudes
It’s still SO GREEN out there! Purple, pink, and yellow are the other colors of the week in the Paths of Heart backyard. Our hearts are happy looking at the beauty all around.
What are you grateful for today?
“I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness – it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.” ~ Brene Brown
“Just an observation: it is impossible to be both grateful and depressed. Those with a grateful mindset tend to see the message in the mess. And even though life may knock them down, the grateful find reasons, if even small ones, to get up.” ~ Steve Maraboli
“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” ~ Meister Eckhart
About Paths of Heart…
Paths of Heart is a high spirited, heart-centered community where we gather together (in new and creative ways!) for music, poetry, commentary, and dialogue to create and nurture joy, compassion, gratitude, and love – in our own lives and throughout the world. Paths of Heart is a 501(c)(3) Human Services/Educational non-profit organization that uses the arts, especially, to encourage and propel seekers of a better, more peaceful world to find ways to serve, while becoming more kind and compassionate human beings.
We welcome you as we collectively and individually explore the sweet mysteries of life – this is an invitation into co-creation!
Visit us on the web at https://www.pathsofheart.org
We hope our physical paths may cross soon!