Dear Friends,
I had a post all written with a bunch of Beauty-as-Medicine January photos to share. I was ready to press “publish” when something in me said, “wait.” Then another innocent civilian, Alex Pretti, was murdered in cold blood by a government goon squad in Minneapolis, and none of what I’d written mattered. I was holding myself as a guide of quiet defiance and the offering felt like comfort-lite. I’m not a frontline protestor like colleagues of mine standing with fellow clergy in Minneapolis, whom I bow to deeply. I know I can’t fully comprehend what folks at ground zero are feeling or experiencing. While I do my best to maintain the practice that “nothing is worth losing your peace,” we are witnessing in horror, those maintaining their peace being killed outright. The grief, fear and uncertainty that overwhelmed me yesterday has become anger and intolerance today.
It’s good I live alone, no one to lash out at. It’s bad I live alone, no one to hold onto. Living alone does offer plenty of space for contemplation, moving through the emotions barraging me, taking care to sooth my nervous system. And still, I wake up at 3am and can’t get back to sleep, grateful for the warm purr of my fur-babies. My nightmares are so real that I check the internet in the morning to see if they’re premonitions. These first weeks of 2026 feel like being in a time warp where everything-everywhere-all-at-once moves both at the speed of light and not at all. Inshallah, the earth makes another trip around the sun and we all lean into creating a new world. What keeps me sane is walking… walking… walking… putting one foot in front of the other. May you find ways to say no to despair and yes to hope. Nature heals. Beauty heals. That’s all I got folks. ☮️ ❣️ 🙏🏻
To seek beauty in a fractured world is an act of quiet defiance… To channel beauty through the arts, to create and share it, is a way of saying no to despair and yes to hope. Source: Fortuny Textiles of Italy
Beautiful music to lift your spirits:
We Shall Be Known – MaMuse
Taste of Truth – Fia
We Rise – Batya Levine
Beautiful wisdom to follow:
Sunday Satsang with Babaji
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/
https://substack.com/@joantollifson
https://www.youtube.com/@Defiance13
My 2026 Retreats (inshallah):
Sisters of Upasana – May 27 – 31 *Full
The Seen and Unseen – July 15 – 19 with Katrina Leathers
Coming Closer to the Divine Through the Elements – July 30 – Aug 2
For Sonoma Ashram Sangha members – September 24 – 27
(Email me for more information)
None of this post was made with AI. Thank you to everyone reading my musings and spending time with my images. Feel free to send me comments and to share. If you, or anyone you know, are on a spiritual quest, celebrating a significant threshold or nearing end-of-life and in need of spiritual guidance or healing ritual, please reach out.
Peace, love and blessings,
Rev. Lisa
Email: lisa@Ljwdivinesight.com
Spiritual Guide. Wise Woman.
Contemplative Photographer. Mystic.
Beauty-as-Medicine™ workshop creator.
Spirit-Infused Healing Photography Books at Blurb
“Photography is my love language. Teaching people to see Beauty-as-Medicine™ is my Ministry.” Rev. Lisa
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