🙏 A gentle upgrade

111

Author

Karen Choi
June 08, 2025

Hello friend đź‘‹

You’re the Balm newsletter is becoming more purposeful. Created to offer a soft landing to return to yourself each week and something I hope feels like a resonant rhythm you can count on.

Each Sunday morning, you’ll now receive a simple care kit:

🎶 One song to meet you
✍️ One poem or quote to sit with
〰️ One way to move—your body, your breath, your being

That’s it. Just one of each. A ritual of presence, sent with love.

And on occasion, you’ll receive an additional invitation to balm with us in real life.

How does that sound?

Here’s to fresh starts, without starting from scratch…#1

🎶 One Song

O Magnum Mysterium by Morten Lauridsen
→ sung by VOCES8

I return to this piece every morning (and multiple times throughout the day) with eyes closed. It offers a flood of peace and love that washes away worry and fear. The original text “O great mystery, and wonderful sacrament” reminds me that in every new beginning and unknown, I am held in that moment. Safe to surrender. Worthy to enter. Blessed to proceed.

✍️ One Poem

WILD GEESE

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

~ by Mary Oliver

You belong. Here. Exactly as you are.

〰️ One Way to Move

âś‹ For when you feel pulled in all directions. A sacred return to the human body and the sense of touch.

Rub your hands together to create warmth. Then, with intention, run them slowly over every inch of your body. Starting from your crown, down to the tips of your toes. Like water gently pouring over you, touch and greet each part. Notice the sensations. A quiet honouring and tender way to come back to centre.

I call this move, I AM HERE.

This is the first in a new rhythm of care. Did something land? Did something stir? If you feel like whispering back, I’m all ears.

Have the most present week ever,
🫶 Karen

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P.S.S. Thank you for trusting me with your time. If these emails ever turn into a burden, it’s okay to unsubscribe from You’re the Balm.

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