The practice of listening is one of the most mysterious, luminous, and challenging art forms on Earth. Mark Nepo More Quotes by Mark Nepo More Quotes From Mark Nepo We tend to make the thing in the way the way. Mark Nepo way For listening to the stories of others ... is a kind of water that breaks the fever of our isolation. If we listen closely enough, we are soothed into remembering our common name. Mark Nepo names listening water It seems that the ancient Medicine Men understood that listening to another's story somehow gives us the strength of example to carry on, as well as showing us aspects of ourselves we can't easily see. For listening to the stories of others - not to their precautions or personal commandments - is a kind of water that breaks the fever of our isolation. If we listen closely enough, we are soothed into remembering our common name. Mark Nepo medicine names men Light is in both the broken bottle and the diamond. Mark Nepo bottles light broken We are broken open, or we willfully shed. Mark Nepo shed broken Mysteriously, as elusive as it is, this moment--where the eye is what it sees, where the heart is what it feels--this moment shows us that what is real is sacred Mark Nepo eye real heart Whatever truth we feel compelled to withhold, no matter how unthinkable it is to imagine ourselves telling it, not to is a way of spiritually holding our breath. You can only do it for so long. Mark Nepo matter long way I've learned that loving your self requires a courage unlike any other. It requires us to believe in and stay loyal to something no one else can see that keeps us in the world - our own self worth. Mark Nepo loving-you self-worth believe Have the # life you want by being fully present to the life you have. Mark Nepo want In a world that lives like a fist mercy is not more than waking with your hands open. Mark Nepo fists hands world This is the ongoing purpose of full attention: to find a thousand ways to be pierced into wholeness. Mark Nepo ongoing purpose attention It is the courage to be authentic that keeps us strong enough to withstand the heartbreak through which enlightenment can occur. And it is by honoring how life comes through us that we get the most out of living, not by keeping ourselves out of the way. The goal is to mix our hands in the earth, not to stay clean. Mark Nepo strong heart hands We need to give up what no longer works and find new ways of being that keeps us close to what matters. Mark Nepo what-matters giving-up needs A love astounds us or a pain consumes us and we forget that we glow on our own. Mark Nepo pain forget To distance ourselves from our experience makes our feelings a liability, while staying in conversation with our experience makes our feelings a resource. Mark Nepo resources distance feelings In truth, our aliveness depends on our ability to sustain wonder: Mark Nepo ocean secret waiting Truth is a seed hidden in the days until watered by what life brings us. Mark Nepo seeds truth-is In truth, the more we lean into life, the more we authentically interact with the world, the brighter our flame. Mark Nepo brighter flames world Love and grief enable us to feel how we're all at heart the same. In love and grief, which is always very personal, the distinctions that separate us melt away. Mark Nepo distinction grief heart We often move away from pain, which is helpful only before being hurt. Once in pain, it seems the only way out is through. Like someone falling off a boat, struggling to stay above the water only makes things worse. We must accept we are there and settle enough so we can be carried by the deep. The willingness to do this is the genesis of faith, the giving over to currents larger than us. Even fallen leaves float in lakes, demonstrating how surrender can hold us up. Mark Nepo pain hurt struggle
