Mark Nepo: The Endless Practice of Becoming
OM TIMES: You speak about the sanctity of experience. What do you mean by this?
MARK NEPO: The point of experience is not to escape life but to live it. Each of us carries some wisdom waiting to be discovered at the center of our experience, and everything we meet, if faced and held, reveals a part of that wisdom. We have a language of truth growing in our heart that only living can decode. The paradox at the center of the sanctity of experience is that while we can learn from each other, while I can quote these sages from across history and cultures as a way to affirm that we’re not alone, we are left to the magnificent journey of living our own lives.
OM TIMES: One of the key chapters in the book is called “What’s in the Way is the Way.” Can you talk more about this?
MARK NEPO: One day, after bemoaning obstacle after obstacle in my life, it suddenly became clear that what’s in the way is the way. Facing the things that prevent us from making our way is the road of freedom we each must suffer in order to become authentic enough to follow the thread of what matters. Despite all our plans, learning to stay in our heart, losing our tight hold on our self, being made humble and gentle through the erosion of loss, and feeling empty enough to begin again—these are steps to finding and refinding the thread of all that matters. Often, we so furiously insist on what we want or where we think we’re going that we ignore, resist or deny what life brings as the next step. All the while, truth is a seed hidden in the days until watered by what life brings us.
