By Natalie Bryant-Rizzieri | Founder & Executive Director
Dear friends and donors,
The music of Spring is in the air. The tips of the tree branches in our residents’ garden are swollen and ready to break into blossom. I think of Mary Oliver’s words:
Such soft and solemn and perfect music doesn’t last
For more than a few moments. It’s one of those
magical places wise people
like to talk about.
One of the things they say about it, that is true,
is that, once you’ve been there, you’re there forever.
Listen, everyone has a chance.
Is it spring, is it morning?
Are there trees near you,
and does your own soul need comforting?
Quick, then — open the door and fly on your heavy feet; the song
may already be drifting away.
The residents are running on their heavy feet today in Mughni, outside of Yerevan (pictured here). The ancient St. Gevorg’s monastery is there, which I visited many years ago just as Spring was having her way. And it is a joy to imagine the residents there, with new sun on their pale wintered faces, in this season of Lent, which is sacred to many Armenians. I hope they go barefoot today. I hope they hear the solemn and perfect music for a few moments and that they know that they too have another chance, yet again.
They have been home for over a decade now, many of them, but I imagine just as our hearts and souls still need healing and transformation and comforting, so too do theirs. May we at Warm Hearth look at the world differently this Spring and see the opportunities in our group home for beginning again, for deep full-hearted joy. May it be so for our dear residents. And may it be so for you, both in your own private journeys and in your journey of loving our residents and circling around them.
If you would like to read our resident profile and about the Armenia Mindfulness Project, please view our quarterly newsletter (attached).
Sincerely Yours,
Natalie Bryant-Rizzieri
Founder & Executive Director
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