Tag Archives for mark nepo

No Longer Searching

orange and white seashell on white surface

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Having loved enough and lost enough,
I’m no longer searching
just opening,

no longer trying to make sense of pain
but trying to be a soft and sturdy home
in which real things can land.

These are the irritations that rub into a pearl.*

~ Mark Nepo

 

Beyond searching is opening and acceptance of life and it’s irritations. There is hidden treasure there.

Namaste

 

*Nepo, Mark. The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting (Kindle Locations 1506-1509). Sounds True. Kindle Edition.

Long Way Home

LONG WAY HOME

I want to have a conversation
that we can return to without
conclusion, one that lasts for
years, that feels like a walk
that has no end. Until the walk
itself is home.

I want to converse this life with
you, the way the old horse and
the young bird trudge and circle
each other in snow.

I want to reach with you into
the heart of things, where the
stitching of the Universe
shows its golden knots.

~ Mark Nepo*

 

I want to share this beautiful yearning with you.

 

* Nepo, Mark. The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting (Kindle Locations 1471-1479). Sounds True. Kindle Edition.

Mind is Like …

welcoming living room

AN OPEN HAND

The mind is not a storeroom
with mirrors where we retreat
to convince ourselves
that we exist.

The mind is a livingroom with
windows and more than one chair,
so friends can come and look out
and discuss what they see.

Not a fortress where we frisk and
strip others of what they believe
in order to share our secrets.

More a porch with birdfeeders
and coffee or tea where before
hello, you have to share a story.

Pull the curtains! Open the
windows! Brew the coffee!
Put out a sign: Other Views
Wanted!*

~ Mark Nepo

 

I love this analogy.

Let our minds be places for sharing and enjoying with each other.

Let us explore together and welcome each other into our  homes.

Put your sign out and see who appears 💛

 

* Nepo, Mark. The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting (Kindle Locations 996-1006). Sounds True. Kindle Edition.

To Glow

inner light

TO GLOW

Like light in the sun
spilling out of the sun,
the spirit within
beams its way
through all our cracks
till our most treasured
walls come down.

The coming down
of those walls is the
blessing we crave
and resist.

The coming down of
those walls— so the light
of the soul like the light
of the sun can help
the world grow— this is
the call of calls.*

~ Mark Nepo

 

Feel it. See it. Hear it. Touch it.

Believe it.

Share it.

🙏

 

 

*Nepo, Mark. The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting (Kindle Locations 987-995). Sounds True. Kindle Edition.

Depth of Feeling

Image from Google

“We are so unused to emotion

that we mistake any depth of feeling for sadness,

any sense of the unknown for fear,

and any sense of peace, for boredom.

We are so schooled away from the life below, that anything beneath scares us.”

~ Mark Nepo from “The Book of Awakening”

It’s a scary place to start to look at ourselves beneath the surface. To face who we are when no one is looking.

We are afraid of what we might find and the depth of our feeling. Yet this is the place where the heart can truly open to all the experiences and feelings that have been denied.

I like how Mark Nepo reflects,  “When we bring up what we keep inside, it is sacred and scary, and the rest of us don’t know if we want to touch it or not, like reaching from a ladder into a nest of baby birds….But I invite you to anyway… For each of us is a fledgling that eventually, if fed, will fly.”

May we find the courage to reach for the sacred place with kindness and a gentle touch.

Nurture your precious baby birds. Let them grow strong and fly.

 

Inspiration – Breaking Surface

girl on her journey

Let no one keep you from your journey,
no rabbi or priest, no mother
who wants you to dig for treasures
she misplaced, no father
who won’t let one life be enough,
no lover who measures their worth
by what you might give up,
no voice that tells you in the night
it can’t be done.

Let nothing dissuade you
from seeing what you see
or feeling the winds that make you
want to dance alone
or go where no one
has yet to go.

You are the only explorer.
Your heart, the unreadable compass.
Your soul, the shore of a promise
too great to be ignored.

~ Mark Nepo*

The last verse  makes my heart soar!

Let us all listen to the truth within us and honor it today… and every day.

Namaste

 

*Nepo, Mark. The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting (Kindle Locations 373-383). Sounds True. Kindle Edition.

* Inspiration – That is What we Do

berries in ice

Google image

“There are many reasons to be kind, but perhaps none is as compelling as the spiritual fact that that is what we do. It is how the inner organ of being keeps pumping … even when other beings sting.

Some say this makes us a sorry lot that never learns, but to me it holds the same beauty as berries breaking through ice and snow every spring. It is what quietly feeds the world. After all, the berries do no have any sense of purpose or charity. They are not altruistic or self-sacrificing. They simply grow to be delicious because that is what they do.”

~ Mark Nepo from The Book of Awakening

When we tune in to our essence, we know that this is what we do.

Be true to your Self.

Namaste

* Information vs Wisdom

beaver with hands on head

“Information is not wisdom. The mind, while a great and irreplaceable tool, can store instead of feel, can sort instead of understand, can, like a beaver builds a dam of everything precious. If you cannot speak when your mouth is stuffed with unchewed wood, how can you think clearly if your mind is stuffed with undigested information? …

But how do we empty the mind? By not overthinking. By not storing and sorting. By not playing fears or dreams or doubts of praise. By choosing the most important thing on our endless list of things to do and doing it fully after tearing up the list.”

~ Mark Nepo from The Book of Awakening

Smiling

Pause and be still

Find your Middle Ground every day

Allow the mind to clear

Connect to your wisdom.

Remember the beaver

Untangle the Nets

Let us all take some time, find our Middle Ground and check our nets today.

Untangle the Netstangled fishing nets
“The aim of spiritual practice, no matter its form, is to untangle the nets that living snares us in.
But though we can learn to untangle specific situations, even get good at it, life on earth is a never-ending weave of becoming tangled and working to get untangled.
fishing net

And deeper than any coping skills we might learn is our acceptance of the weave of tangle, which is closely tied to the rhythm of being whole-hearted and half-hearted.
Like dilating and constricting and inhaling and exhaling, this opening and closing of our heart is necessary to stay alive.

tangled netNone of these states— being tangled or untangled, being whole-hearted or half-hearted, being open or closed— is a place we can permanently stay.
When we are half hearted, we tangle the net. When we are whole-hearted, we untangle the net. But the weave of tangle never ends.”
 –Mark Nepo, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen

Wishing you a day of whole-heartedness in the highs and lows of life 🙂