Sanctuary Lives Here

Posted byKathleen Cassen MickelsonPosted inpath forwardTags:, ,

In the wake of our election results, I’ve decided to take whatever small actions I can to put kindness, comfort, encouragement, and beauty back into the world.

That means retooling One Minnesota Crone a little bit by posting more frequently for a while, sharing whatever Zen moments I stumble over and gather up. This is, after all, a place of encouragement in itself, a place of finding something that nourishes, boosts, calms.

Today, I feel like I did at the beginning of the pandemic, uncertain and worried. But I also feel that I learned from that experience – learned how to find resilience, understand the power of gratitude, weed out bad information, connect with those who know that difficulties are a nudge to find a better path forward.

Let’s get going.

Today’s moment of much-needed Zen:

The way birds flock, any birds, against a gray November sky, reminds us we are better together than divided. These are cedar waxwings (hard to see in the dim light, I know) who came through our yard to feast on the nearby crabapple tree’s abundance. Once nourished, together they will migrate for the winter.

photo by kcmickelson 2024

Published by Kathleen Cassen Mickelson

Kathleen Cassen Mickelson is a Minnesota-based writer who has published work in journals in the US, UK, and Canada. She is the author of the poetry chapbook How We Learned to Shut Our Own Mouths (Gyroscope Press, 2021) and co-author of the poetry collection Prayer Gardening (Kelsay Books, 2023).

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