Category Archives: nature

April 9, 2025

day 98 glimmers – NaGloPoWriMo 9 April 2025

By Kat Myrman

First things first. We need a glimmer or two or three or four. 

Glimmer #1: a monarch butterfly hopped from dandelion to dandelion pausing to sip nectar along the way. 

Glimmer #2 and 3: Then the turkeys came …and just when I had almost given up hope of seeing my deer friends again, a lone yearling made her way through the wood’s edge to share seeds I had tossed on the ground for the birds. 

She lingered a while, then wandered back into the woods… I wondered if she was the lone survivor…

Glimmer #4:  The best glimmer of all. The yearling had brought a few friends back to the clearing. Four to five more deer came to call. Not the full herd, but it did my heart good to see them. All tolled, a doe and four young deer. 

In the distance the turkeys were making a huge ruckus…I imagined the Jennie’s finally stopped playing hard to get. They certainly are noisy, very noisy lovers. 

Dusk started to settle around us. All is  right with my world. My thoughts are still with the other deer. I’m still hoping none of them succumbed to the hunters last night.  But I’m counting my blessings. 

Much love, peace and glimmers to you! 

~kat ✨✨💚✨✨

And now for today’s NaGloPoWriMo 9 April 2025 prompt:  Today we’d like to challenge you to try writing a poem of your own that uses rhyme, but without adhering to specific line lengths. For extra credit, reference a very specific sound, like the buoy in Hillyer’s poem.

the wind has many voices

if I close my eyes
when a strong wind blows
i can hear the swell and rise
of ocean waves, the ebb and flow
how did the trees 
learn the salty score
of the sea 
waves crashing rhythmically into the shore

sometimes I clearly hear 
the sound of jubilation,
tickling my ears 
a symphony of ovations
fluttering leaves
rousing cheers
i could be deceived 
It sounds like applause, so clear

the wind has many voices 
my favorite one of all
is when the breezes whisper
I love it when they call
“come sit with me,” they croon
“it’s time for you to breathe 
this moment will be over soon
embrace it, take in everything you see.”

so take me to the heights when the winds’ graces
brush my cheek with soft kisses and toss my hair
the wind has many faces,  
I’d know her…they…and them anywhere

~kat

9 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in 2025, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, napowrimo, nature, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Rhymed Verse

April 4, 2025

NaGloPoWriMo 4 April 2025 ~ glimmer day 93

By Kat Myrman
This is a photo taken of the morning sun using my iPhone camera. ~kat
beyond the frame

my room has frames of living art
shades of green and blue and gold
rain-splashed watercolored trees
clustered leaves in pale chartreuse 
exposed patches of earthen clay
rich in grubs, where turkeys play 

each window of my country home
reveals the splendor just outside 
i wake up to the sun at dawn
and drift to sleep by moon at night
my walls in general are bare
paint on canvas can’t compare
with nature’s perfect masterpiece
where I am a one with all I see

~kat

I have stated before that when we moved to our little country home in the Blue Ridge foothills we decided to leave the windows undressed. It felt weird at first. I felt exposed, vulnerable even. But as I settled into this new experience after decades of shuttering myself off from the world outside; from the noise and nosy passersby, I realized what a gift it is to live so close to the natural world. I experience the seasons intimately as the landscape moves through spring, summer, autumn and winter. Wildlife passes by everyday, the birds, the deer, raccoons, squirrels and opossums. Storms rush in, shaking the roof, bending the trees and soaking the earth before fading to mist under an occasional rainbow. I wake to the rising sun and sleep under a starry moonlit sky. I didn’t realize when we moved how much I needed this place. It has saved me in so many ways and I am reminded that I am not separate from the world around me, but intrinsically a part of it. I left town and gained the world. 

Much love, peace, and glimmers to you. Every day is a glimmer waiting to be discovered! 

~kat ✨✨💚✨✨  

NaGloPoWriMo 4 April 2025 Prompt: Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own poem about living with a piece of art.

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March 30, 2025

day 88 ~ a ReVerse Poem

By Kat Myrman
Remembering some past glimmers…

a ReVerse Poem ~ Sunday, March 30, 2025

we see the smoke billowing, blotting out the sky
liberty mourns for her children
death moans lazily
it was great for a while
there once was an old gal who rarely got sick
forced me to choose, I chose | to speak truth to power
overwhelming to bear
in my little world
call her what you will
winter is lingering
a dawn visitation
nature sings her song of spring
you cannot break us, not today

~kat

Interesting, challenging times we’re living in. It’s a time when writing this blog, and especially chronicling the truth of what is happening in my country feels like a bold act of resistance. These days other, more vulnerable people (due to their citizenship status) are randomly singled out by masked vigilantes (I don’t believe for a minute that these people are actual legally deputized law enforcement) and disappeared from sight to god knows where with no due process or recourse. It gives me pause. It should give all of us pause. In a matter of roughly 2 months the America I knew has been given over to criminals armed with the power to dismantle checks and balances, safety nets and systems, as they set the stage to coronate as dictator king, a felonious, serial predator, and liar who seeks to colonize and rule the western continents alongside his comrade with like motivations in the east.

I keep asking myself if I’m overreacting as ignorant, maga lemmings chide me that it’s not that bad, certainly not as bad as when “other” democratic leaders flanked the helm. It’s madness…or maybe I’m just mad, as in insane, but also as in angry as hell and incensed by it all. 

So…I’m still here, and will continue use my voice, chronicling what it feels like to experience the end of a democracy. When this year began I determined, for my own sanity that I needed to deal with the fear and angst I was feeling. I found a life-changing article about glimmers. As a refresh…

  • Glimmers are small moments of joy or peace that arise from appreciating simple things like the colors of a rainbow, the scent of a flower, or the sound of the rain.
  • Glimmers and triggers are opposites in that glimmers spark positive feelings while triggers spark negative ones.
  • The practice of noticing and appreciating glimmers can cue your nervous system to relax and have a positive effect on your mental health.
  • To increase the odds of noticing glimmers, spend time in places that nourish you, connect with people you enjoy, limit screen time, and practice mindfulness.

Read more about glimmers and how they came to be here. Apparently the concept has taken off everywhere. I had no idea at the time I was joining a movement by focusing my little blog on sharing my glimmers with you. (Glimmers in the air…or the water perhaps? 😉) But here we are, and so it is…and most importantly, so it will continue. I have found that I cannot live without them. 

Tomorrow we head into national/global poetry month. My daily focus will remain “glimmers” with the added inspiration from daily prompts. Rest assured I plan to keep the glimmers coming. And I hope you too to take up this practice. We need glimmers now more than ever. 

Much love, peace, and glimmers to you!

~kat ✨✨💚✨✨

5 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in 2025, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, nature, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Reverse Poem, Shi Sai, Social Issues, Week in Review

March 28, 2025

day 86 (part 2) ah spring

By Kat Myrman 

the greening

beneath the mountain
nature sings her song of spring
breathing earth to life

~kat~

Today was a perfect spring day. The sun was shining. The sky blue with wisps of clouds. The hummingbirds are due back in about a week. And there is the sweetest warm breeze tossing the trees. I look forward to the leaves popping from the tree limbs. This year we had so many wind storms that there is nothing left on the forest floor. I’ve never seen things so blighted. But I do rest in the hope that nature will restore what winter swept away. When spring bursts to life it will fill me with joy. There is also joy in the anticipation; in the knowing that the seasons are ever faithful.

No matter what challenges may confront me, I try to remember these lessons from nature…the rising sun at dawn, its setting at dusk, the shape shifting moon of many faces, the stars in constellation fixed in place, the movement of the planets, the tides’ ebb and flow, the abundance of the harvest every year, and the new life that bursts onto the scene every spring. What a wonderful life this is. And how blessed we are to be alive to witness it.

I know, I know, the news…it was another shocking day of injustice and abuse of power by the miscreants in the US white house and the halls of congress…just as it will be tomorrow and the next day. I’m afraid that is our lot right now. I’m engaged in the opposition….and a safe place and helper when opportunities present themselves.

But the world…my world right here, right now is alive in anticipation of the fullness of spring. Today, that’s what I’m focusing on. It is after all, what truly matters. not to mention, it give me hope. ✨💚✨

Much love, peace and glimmers of spring to you!

~kat

Magnetic Poetry Nature Kit / Haiku

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March 20, 2025

day 79

By Kat Myrman 
ode to freedom
to symbols of goodness
how special you were
then smooth operators in suits
took power from the people…
it was great for a while

~kat

Tried a new Magnetic Poetry Kit…the Mustache. It’s pretty much a collection of the words you might expect to find in a mustache category. Our country reeks of excessive, aggressive testosterone these days. No offense at all intended toward the gentlemanly men in the world. But hardness and meanness, bullish behavior is celebrated these days. How sad it makes me feel to have to witness this in my lifetime. And how I mourn for my children’s children who are inheriting this disaster.

After work today I walked outside to get some fresh air and soak in the last rays of sunlight. To the west the sun burned bright and golden just above the horizon. To the east storm clouds hung over the budding trees along my driveway. Random raindrops dotted the ground and the wind whistled through the treetops. I needed that glimmer. My day was long and challenging and what little news I caught was not good. But how grateful I am to have lived another day, and to be blessed with such a beautiful sight at day’s end. Grab your glimmers wherever, whenever you can. It is like manna from heaven!

Peace, Love, and Glimmers to you!

~kat

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in 2025, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, Magnetic Poetry, nature, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Social Issues, Spirituality