Mark Nepo: The Endless Practice of Becoming
In 1987, Mark Nepo was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma. The heart of that journey and its aftermath has profoundly informed his work. Ever since, he has been a student of all paths and his work has explored the common center and unity of all spiritual traditions, focusing on how we can experience that unity when we can lean into life and hold nothing back.
Today, 26 years later, Mark is cancer free. His journey to healing has many elements that may inspire others struggling with cancer or other life-threatening situations, and since his recovery, Mark has shared his story as a way to introduce others to their own wisdom, believing that “those who suffer have a wisdom the rest of us need.” He has delivered many keynote speeches and has spoken at conferences and medical schools including the National Wellness Conference, New Jersey Medical School, and Columbia Medical School’s Center for Narrative Medicine, Ohio Medical School, and Indiana University Medical School. He continues to work with doctors, interns, nursing communities and cancer centers.
“What I have had to face are the great ordinary things that all of us have to face: the prospect of dying without having truly lived, and the prospect of living without having truly loved. The rest are branches from these deep roots. And no one has ever been able to figure these out alone. Or enliven these alone.” — Mark Nepo
Mark’s friendship with Oprah began when she was given The Book of Awakening (a year’s supply of inspirational stories and beautifully written essays that the reader can reflect on in daily doses) as a birthday gift. The book became one of her Ultimate Favorite Things in 2010. She says she does one lesson from the book every morning. “If we all do it together, we can begin to open our hearts, change the world and begin to have the life you want by being present to the life you have now. Mark Nepo is a poet, an author and a philosopher and has been through two different cancers. So when he writes, he writes purely from the heart.”
