One afternoon many years ago, I was waiting for the C train at 59th street, tears quietly dripping down my cheeks, when a stranger came up to me and gently held out a little cardboard box of apple juice with a tiny plastic straw. It was all he had, he told me, but he could feel my pain and needed me to know I wasn’t alone. I sat in gratitude for his tender offering. Not for the apple juice itself, but for the soft and simple act of letting my pain be seen and held by someone, in their own way.
I don’t remember much about the patient I had visited earlier that day. Who it was I sat with or the source of their grief, the pain I had wrapped around myself like a thick wool blanket as I left their home and walked to the train in a teary haze. My apple juice man is also a blur lost in time, I don’t recall anything about him other than the way he made me feel held that day. I think of him often, a daisy link on my chain of support through pain and healing. His tiny act made me softer and stronger.
I’ve witnessed the world’s cruel nature, haven’t we all? It can be unfair and ugly and terrifying. But my apple juice man, he was a stranger on my daisy chain of supportive humans strengthening me through kindness. He reminded me that the world can be tender and beautiful; that even a stranger on a train platform can bring healing; that we can ease pain with as simple an offering as apple juice.
May we all be daisy links on a chain of kind and supportive healing, for others and ourselves.
May we all have our pains eased with offerings as tender as a cardboard box of apple juice.
I’m so honored to share my home and a chat with my friend Joanna on her site Cup of Jo this week. You can read it here, if you’d like!
My sculptural vases are now available in my webshop! These are so special and one of my favorite pieces to make. You can find them here.
My studio photo this week is a larger handbuilt vase ready for it’s second firing. The glazed inside makes it water tight while the raw outside gives it a soft, organic feel. It’ll shrink a bit more and become a sandy color while it bakes to over two thousand degrees fahrenheit. Wishing it well on its fiery journey!
The personal peace toolkit is your own catalog of accessible mindfulness techniques to fold into your life in 30 seconds, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes, bringing a little more calm to your days.
This week our practice is focused on your own daisy chain of support and healing, including a thirty second poem, a prompt of self-kindness, and an illustration I drew just for you.
If you’re not already a paid subscriber, I hope you consider joining and building some peace and reflection into your life with me <3
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