BLOOD REASONS

“If you don’t know the kind of person I am and I don’t know the kind of person you are a pattern that others made may prevail in the world and following the wrong god home, we may miss our star.”

~ William Stafford

Like the old saying, “Water fills a hole,” the ways of others will fill the space we live in if we don’t fill that space with our own authentic presence. For a long time, I thought that keeping who I am to myself was the same thing as being myself quietly. I discovered it is not.

Not that we have to verbalize or shout everything, but we do need to be fully here the way a cliff accepts a wave, the way a stem of clover grows into the one patch of light left in the forest, the way corn sweats its sweet moisture when no one is looking.

In truth, there are always two blood reasons to be who we are. It is how we find love, and it is how we keep the ways of others from sweeping us away.

~ This is a walking meditation. During your day, take a slow five-minute walk.

~ As you walk, notice the air in the wind move about you and meet it fully with your face.

~ As you return to your day, consider how you can meet the wind of others with your heart.

The Book of Awakening

~ Mark Nepo