Sounds True recently published a new, expanded edition of Inside the Miracle: Enduring Suffering, Approaching Wholeness, which gathers twenty-eight years of my writing and teaching about suffering, healing, and wholeness, including thirty-nine new poems and prose pieces not yet published. One of the great transforming passages in my life was having cancer in my mid-thirties. This experience unraveled the way I see the world and made me a student of all spiritual paths. With a steadfast belief in our aliveness, I hope what's in this book will help you meet the transformation that waits in however you're being forged. The following piece is an excerpt from the book.
Covenant With Time
In silence or in crisis, we can put
down the gun, bandage the wound,
carry the water and share our bread.
But under all that, all we can do is
hold each other and listen. The one,
an indispensable lifting. The other,
an indispensable putting down. So
when you fall, I will help you up.
But when I fall on the inside, just
sit with me and rub the cuts no one
can see. This is how we make it to
tomorrow: fall and rub, lift and put
down. Like a piece of cliff letting
go after a thousand trials
to add to the shore.
A Question to Walk With: In conversation with a friend, ask how you can sit with them and bear witness to whatever it is they are going through.
For more poetry for the soul, click here.
For more by Mark Nepo, click here.