Spiritual Things Matter

Viola Jaynes describes her writ­ing goals in this manner:

As I write, I desire that those who have expe­ri­enced pain will find some com­fort and peace. The words which I write come from my heart, birthed from my own bro­ken­ness and a con­tin­ued long­ing to find greater spir­i­tual aware­ness. I want to embrace all peo­ple and there­fore I will not limit my writ­ing here to any reli­gious beliefs or quo­ta­tions of scrip­tures. That is a jour­ney each will have to make for them­selves. I sim­ply want to share that in and through pain, a full life is still pos­si­ble. It has been for me.”

She writes beau­ti­ful poetry that will haunt you, invad­ing your thoughts long after you read it. Her prose is equally bril­liant in its sim­plic­ity, and open but uncon­trived emotionality.

There isn’t a writer in the blo­gos­phere who is more deserv­ing of the first Post of the Day Award for 2009 than Viola. The award could eas­ily have been bestowed upon her for any of her posts.

But today, we honor New Year’s Wishes for You. The blo­gos­phere is replete with posts focus­ing upon the tran­si­tion from 2008 to 2009; reviews of the year just ended; lists of blog­gers’ accom­plish­ments, notable events, scan­dals, and mile­stones; res­o­lu­tions and anti-resolutions; and, of course, wishes, bless­ings, and good wishes for the New Year.

But by far the most elo­quent, com­pre­hen­sive, and mov­ing New Year’s bless­ing I read this year was com­posed by Viola. Therein, she wrote:

I wish for you a gen­tler embrace
if you have been too harsh
with your­self as well as oth­ers.
A kinder out­look of who and what you are in this world.
Recog­ni­tion for the gifts and beauty
which lie within the cen­ter of your being.
Aware­ness of the futil­ity and wasted energy
of com­par­ing your­self to oth­ers;
plac­ing them on too high of a pedestal,
yearn­ing for their approval, and the fear of their disapproval.

I invite you to visit Spir­i­tual Things Mat­ter and spend some time perus­ing Viola’s writ­ing. You will surely be enriched and inspired.

Tech­no­rati Tags: Post of the Day Award, Spir­i­tual Things Mat­ter, The Ris­ing Blogg­ger, Viola Jaynes

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