INVITATION 1

Notice Micro-Seasons

Haiku, a traditional Japanese poetry form, is often focused on nature and the changing seasons. The Japanese culture has divided the four seasons into 24 mini-seasons called Sekki and further broken those down into 72 micro-seasons called Kou.

For example:

Mini-season: Keichitsu, Waking of Insects from Feb 5-Feb 19.

• Micro-seasons:

• East winds thaw the ice, Feb 4-8

• Bush warblers are seen, Feb 9-13

• Fish ascend the ice, Feb 14-18*

*from Pathways to Presence: A Mindful Nature Haiku Journal.

In January, I received a book for my birthday: Still: The Art of Noticing by Mary Jo Hoffman. The author began a project to photograph and notice beauty every day for one year. That one-year idea stretched into a ten-year adventure.

When Hoffman learned about the Japanese way of Sekki and Kou, she developed her own list for northern Minnesota.

Mini-Season: Time of Awakening, Feb 19-March 5

Micro-Seasons:

• Bright sun, long shadows

• Red osier dogwood stems turn scarlet

• Waxwings get drunk on fermented crabapples

With this daily discipline of paying attention, Mary Jo Hoffman discovered something “turning inside me, like a new season about to burst into itself.”

She found herself living in a heightened sense of awareness that made her extraordinarily happy as she was “no longer sleepwalking through the obligations of a busy life, but seeing, and noticing all the time.”

In 2025, I am challenging myself to notice my own Sekki and Kou in the two locations of Arizona where I live. I am looking for the white-winged doves to arrive, along with the first wildflowers. Up north, I will document the first robin and search for the San Franciscan bluebells as they pop up from under the snow in spring.

From my nature journal in January about my home in Chandler:

• Gila woodpeckers loudly drink all the hummingbird nectar

• Desert willow trees lose their leaves

• Kildeer arrive at neighborhood park

So why does it matter? Woodpeckers and willow trees and kildeer? Why bother? Why pay attention?

Most of life is small and daily and not very important (we think). But that is not true.

Most of life is small and daily and adds up to be the whole of our one, beautiful life. A life that includes running errands, sending that hand-written card, doing the dishes, reaching out to an elderly neighbor, tucking the toddler into bed with a kiss goodnight.

A life that begins with paying attention.

INVITATION 2

Your Soul’s Backpack

A verse to carry in your soul’s backpack:

Therefore

we must pay much closer attention

to what we have heard,

lest we drift away from it.

Hebrews 12:1 ESV

INVITATION 3

Consider the Beauty Where You Live

We found beauty in the wildfire scars of two hikes, one in the Superstition Mountains (Siphon and Ghost Fires in 2024) and one where we circumnavigated Picketpost Mountain (Telegraph Fire in 2022.)

INVITATION 4

A Giveaway!!

(Congrats to Jeanne J as last month’s winner!)

This month’s giveaway is the book, Angels and Divine Encounters. While I don’t have a story in this book, the publisher graciously sent me some copies. I have two books to give away!

If you want to be reminded of how God continually intersects our ordinary lives in miraculous ways, this book is for you!

Click on the link below and send me an email for a chance to win! I will draw the winners on Feb 7.

LOCAL EVENT

I am thrilled to be part of a collaborative work involving four creatives from Chandler, Arizona and four from Tullamore, Ireland. We traveled to Ireland with our art in July 2024 and now the show, Ceangal/Connections, will be in Chandler from March 15- July 20, 2025. My contribution to the exhibit is desert poetry.

Location: Chandler Museum, 178 E Commonwealth Ave, Chandler, AZ 85225. The museum is always free!!

March 14: Artist Reception from 5:00 - 7:00 pm. Attend the Grand Opening and chat with the artists.

June 3: Lunch and Learn from 12:00 - 12:30. Hear about our Sister City relationship with Tullamore and the details behind this exhibit. (Bring a lunch!) I will be one of the speakers.

Speaking of Events!

Poetry on vintage typewriters! If you have an upcoming event where street poetry (created on the spot!) on vintage typewriters would be of interest, reach out to me at lynnehartke@gmail.com.

I had so much fun typing poems with other writers at the multicultural event in Chandler in January. We also guided children in typing their own sentences. (And yes, it was cold that morning!)

All Photos are by Lynne Hartke, unless otherwise noted.

• First three images are from the oasis on Picketpost Mountain loop near Superior, AZ.

• Book cover and images of fiddleneck ferns from the book Still by Mary Jo Hoffman.

• Standing dead saguaro on Picketpost Mountain loop.

• Indian Paintbrush, Superstition Mountains.

• Cottonwood leaf on frozen water, Picketpost Mountain by Kevin Hartke.

• Crested saguaro, Superstition Mountains by Kevin Hartke.

• My desert poetry at Esker Art Gallery in Tullamore, Ireland, paired with Bob Rice’s photography.

• Vintage typewriter in Chandler, AZ by Laurie Fagen.

• Telegraph Canyon on Picketpost Mountain.