Working with What We're Given
A chapter reading from Mark Nepo's Surviving Storms: finding the strength to meet adversity.
Today I read a chapter in “Surviving Storms: finding the strength to meet adversity by Mark Nepo, and to be honest the first thing I wanted to do was share it with all of you.
This chapter grabbed hold of my heart deeply, for my own healing journey through breast cancer, and also the state of the country right now, this is necessary.
I highly recommend this book, so if you want to read it, go here!
I decided to read the chapter out loud to give you the opportunity to listen and take it in. Then, find a cup of tea and sit with a journal and write. This chapter talks about “being broken” verses being “broken open”. He take a look at the why of how some of us sometimes evolve and then other times remain stuck.
Does that sound familiar? Yup…it does to me. So, if you are intrigued, listen on.
“When broken open, we grow. When just broken, we endure. And the crucial calling of all relationship is to inhabit what we learn from being broken opento help us endure the times we are just broken.” - Mark Nepo
I have been thinking deeply on this. Through my journey I had to look into my heart and decide for myself if I was just simply broken, or was I breaking open? There were a lot of times where I had no idea, and did not have the capacity to figure it out. When I would sit quietly I could feel it, deep inside my heart that it was breaking open. I could allow myself to see the silk paintings of my heart and know that through this adversity I was given the opporunity to hold compassion for myself. Not at all easy, but when I paid attention, it felt natural, it felt necessary. And, it began to feel necessary to hold that compassion out into the world. Which in its current state, is incredibly hard. INCREDIBLY HARD.
Hold space for yourself today, listen to the chapter, and write on this prompt. See what shows up for you today.
PROMPT:
In your journal: Tell the story of a time where your ability to be patient helped your endure a difficult time. What did waiting reveal to you that urgency did not.
With friends and family in conversation: Discuss one time when you were broken opn and what was opened in you. Compare this to a time when you felt just broken. How did these difficult experiences shape who you are?
One final quote to leave you all with…
It is from the ground of such waiting that our faith in life deepens and widens. no one is exempt from the turbulence of life but we all have access to the peace from which the storm arises and the peace to which the storm, once spent, returns. This is hard to rememeber when in the storm. But though the surf may throw me under, I still believe in the sea. -Mark Nepo
Namate + Love
