Laurie Klein, Scribe

immerse in God, emerge refreshed

  • About
  • Books
  • Blog
    • Small Wonders
    • Soul Mimosas
    • Springboards
    • Wellsprings
    • BiblioDiva
  • Reveries
  • Links
  • Contact
  • Press Kit
  • Playlist

Sigh, Sigh, Sigh (& Stay Alive!)

by Laurie Klein 17 Chiming In

Sigh … audibly. Deeply. Frequently. (So says my fitness instructor)

Sigh: Take One

Dreamer’s latest angiogram date looms. After 5 bypasses, why are we here again? Dismay feels substantive enough to mold—like river sludge between cupped palms.

Sigh. Empty the hands, lift them in trusting surrender. 

An audible sigh re-inflates the vital, occasionally squashed alveoli within our lungs, keeping us alive.

So sigh some more.

A sigh alleviates stress. Research shows that 12 hourly sighs help us regroup, emotionally. Read more here.

  • Yes, bad news strikes, and fear makes us bristle, become thistle-y with those we love
  • Yes, sometimes even the air weighs on us, seemingly saturated with unshed tears
  • Yes, how easily we slide toward the sump of dread

Stalled out again,
going nowhere fast,
I remember
“nowhere”
plus the addition
of one slender space
becomes “now here.”

Presence. One slender pause—a breath, a hum, a prayer—invites a sacred recalibration. The built-in reset for body and soul.

Inhale. Sigh aloud. Repeat.

“there is a changing of everything —
when breath becomes prayer.”*

lauriekleinscribe logo

Richard Rohr teaches a simple breath prayer. Using the name YAHWEH for God: inhale, audibly voicing the YAH; exhale, audibly voicing the WEH.

I also like Dr. Andrew’s Weil’s calming breath exercise:

  • Exhale as much air as possible with a big whoosh
  • Place tongue behind upper teeth, inhale for an easy count of 4
  • Hold breath for a count of 7
  • Exhale audibly for a count of 8

Do this four times. As it becomes easier, increase to eight repetitions, twice a day.

I vary the 4-7-8 exercise by counting on my fingers, simultaneously humming or praying.

*Prayer, Ann Voskamp

Filed Under: Small Wonders Tagged With: breath, pause, prayer, presence, sigh, space, waiting February 15, 2018

Kissing — Actual, Metaphorical — Changes All

by Laurie Klein 17 Chiming In

Kissing: Can it reboot the soul?

Think of things that disappear . . .

writes poet Naomi Shibab Nye

Reflections

Frozen

Things evanescent as infancy, childhood, youth,

a glass of wine,

a kiss.

Think of beings, or moments, that blend in so well we seldom notice them.

Camo, under the sea
Invisi-fish!

You might miss a person, or a pet, whose company you’ve cherished. Perhaps they’re gone now, or changed in some essential way.

You might miss what once defined normal days. Time and circumstance have dumped your files, deleted your template. (Feels that way at our place.)

Biologically alive, like the Greek word, Bios, we’re living, breathing, functioning, coping. Even laughing.

But fully alive?

Fleeting recognition

Centuries ago, William Blake, another poet wrote:

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy
He who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sunrise

What is “kissing the joy as it flies” if not delighting in the mundane?

“‘Delight‘ is a word that might scare people,” a friend of mine once wrote. “If I heard it in a disengaged conversation in a crowded room, it would probably snap my head around.”

After reading my last post, he (gently) re-sent me his essay. (A friend notices when we lose touch with “kissing the joy as it flies.”)

My friend spoke about “the person who has made a conscious decision to not only find more joy in her own life, but to make her zest available to others, while not jamming it down their throats.”

Recognition flared in me, charged as air after a lightning strike. Point (gratefully) taken.

Puckered up

Into our humdrum, getting-it-done, daily mindsets a small recognition arrives, freighted with meaning. We feel lucky, even rich, having brushed up against Beauty.

Pause, exhale, savor each tiny, once-in-a-blue-moon event.

Zoe, the Greeks call this: vital, abundant, eternal aliveness.

(Poet Nye again:)

Think of what you love best,
what brings tears into your eyes.

Something that said adios to you
before you knew what it meant
or how long it was for.

Kissing: soap bubble on the sleeve of the day

Last weekend a soap bubble at our grandson’s birthday party kissed my imagination awake: another invitation to Zoe.

. . . Lessons following lessons,
like silence following sound.*

More kissing

The kissing theme re-appeared when I recently read a poem for Seattle NPR: “Maple Grove” describes a kiss (Read, or listen, here, or below.) A year ago, the poem languished in my Compost File. Time plus distance revealed the gap; then, something to fill it.

Poet Nye seconds this observation:

“I have always loved the gaps, the spaces between things, as much as the things. I love staring, pondering, mulling, puttering. I love the times when someone or something is late—there’s that rich possibility of noticing more, in the meantime . . .

“Poetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own.”

Absorb today’s abundance, I tell myself—before it disappears.

What joy is flying past you this week? Might it want to grow into something more?

a kiss on the sleeve of the day

lauriekleinscribe logo

*”Adios,” by Naomi Shibab Nye

“Eternity,” by William Blake

“Maple Grove,” by Laurie Klein

Filed Under: Immersions Tagged With: bios, evanescence, gaps, joy, kissing, space, zoe April 18, 2017

Space: Creativity’s New Frontier?

by Laurie Klein 26 Chiming In

Space

Day 1: I wake to the heady pine scent of Christmas—the morning I’ve dreaded (backstory here).

Our trees are falling. Heartwood splinters like gunfire.

Out in the air-conditioned Forestry Bobcat with its whiz-bang red Masticator, the contractor we hired knocks over bug-ridden pines. Each living, still-photosynthesizing tree explodes. Detritus sprays 300 feet.

space is made

Goodbye, fairy-tale forest. Farewell, shadowy habitat for owls, deer, small furry critters. Our once-magical backyard seems doomed.

Our contractor follows another man wielding his chainsaw against the larger victims of pine bark beetles.

forest space made by chainsaw

Their plan seems haphazard, the destruction acute.

"Timber-r-r-r-rr-!"

I can hardly bear the new emptiness.

Absence hurts. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Immersions Tagged With: absence, curate, edit, space August 9, 2016

Catch and Release, a New Angle

by Laurie Klein 12 Chiming In

catch and release

Giant Trout Mauls Author-to-be!

(Yours truly, at Wall Drug, S.D, hollering: “Catch and release!“)

Too many responsibilities ever sink double rows of teeth into your day?

Lately, my chores seem to spawn more work as I sleep. I rise feeling half as alert and twice as behind.

Walk, worship, exercise. Cook. Clean. Connect with others. Submit work, proof galleys, study technology, and research marketing strategies.

How do I hit “reset” today, rather than the panic button?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Immersions Tagged With: deep breathing, fishing, possibility, space September 28, 2015

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS

Subscribe

Please enter your email address below to receive emails from Laurie twice a month.

Your information is safe with me. I will never spam you. Read my privacy policy here.

Hi, I’m Laurie.

  • Scribe for wonder
  • Contemplative author/artist
  • Reader/performer/speaker
  • Imagination maven
  • Biblio*Diva
  • Expert on chocolate raisins
  • Click here to read more.

Where the Sky Opens, a Partial Cosmography

Where the Sky Opens, a Partial Cosmography
Buy This Book Online
Buy from Amazon
Where the Sky Opens, a Partial Cosmography
Buy now!

Recent Posts

  • Grit, Stardust, Healing Rigor
  • My Christmas in Asia
  • Sustain
  • Start with a Girl
  • Dear Ones, a Gift for You

Categories

  • BiblioDiva
  • Immersions
  • Small Wonders
  • Soul Mimosas
  • Springboards
  • Wellsprings

Tags

adoption adventure attention Beauty breath change contemplative cookies crèche death delight disconnect Gift grace gratitude hope joy light longing love Magi music nest pain peace pearls pivot possibility prayer Risk savor second thoughts senses shelf life soundings space star stories surrender transformation truth waiting wing wonder yes

Copyright © 2023 Laurie Klein, Scribe Laurie Klein, Scribe All Rights Reserved Laurie Klein, Scribe Privacy Policy