The aim of spiritual practice, no matter its form, is to untangle the nets that living snares us in. But though we can learn to untangle specific situations, even get good at it, life on earth is a never-ending weave of becoming tangled and working to get untangled. And deeper than any coping skills we might learn is our acceptance of the weave of tangle, which is closely tied to the rhythms of being whole-hearted and half-hearted. Like dilating and constricting and inhaling and exhaling, the opening and closing of our heart is necessary to stay alive. None of these states - being tangled or untangled, being whole-hearted or half-hearted, being open or closed - is a place we can permanently stay. When we are half-hearted, we tangle the net. When we are whole-hearted we untangle the net. But the weave of tangle never ends.

- Mark Nepo