Grace is not knowledge or reason, but rather, grace is the amount of light in our souls.
- Pope Francis
When we can meet life with an open heart, receiving becomes indistinguishable from giving and we become conduits of grace.
- Mark Nepo
Returning to what matters involves setting aside our preconceptions and opinions so we can listen to life directly. Living this directly opens us to the spiritual gravity that pulls us to the common center of all living things.
It is the pull to center that asks us to lean into all we don’t know. Leaning into life is the work of intuition, the chance to discover the learnings we are born with, the way a seed discovers the flower it will become.
The work of being is to listen deeply, to experience the one living sense that connects all things….the Source of all, the connection that holds the history of presence and wisdom.
- Mark Nepo
Life waits full-born in the moments of our lives. How we meet and listen to these moments unfolds the path of our own transformation.
So the task now is to slow down enough and be present enough to enter each moment that calls.
How we recognize and see a moment can give us insight. This is valuable by itself.
To relate to and feel a moment can strengthen our heart through compassion and humility. This too is valuable by itself.
But when we can enter a moment, the world touches us with its unwavering illumination. Listening at such an intimate and complete level allows us the privilege of being permanently touched by what we encounter. When we can treat what comes our way not as an object but as a meeting with the living, then deep listening evokes a devotion that says, Stay in relationship with everything.
- Mark Nepo
If the purpose and gift of love is to awaken and rewaken what is dormant within us (our soul), then when awake it is our responsibility to stay awake and keep the gift alive. We do this by deep listening. Not toward a goal or even toward a noble ambition but as a way of life, staying devoted to listening with our heart - more than once, to everything.
Deep listening requires letting go of our internal argument with the world. Before we can truly listen, we must exhaust ourselves of our assumptions. In truth, if we are to ever glimpse the world outside the stubborn certainty of our minds, we have to put down our ready answer to everything. This necessitates an inner discipline.
Every time we speak, we have to discern: are we speaking honestly or just barking from our wall into all we are afraid of? And every time we receive, are we actually hearing the truth of another or are we preparing the next argument like a brick to strengthen our wall?
When we listen deeply, we stumble beautifully into the spaces between our sufferings. This is why we dare to listen, so we might drop together into the truth that holds us all.
This is how we become conduits of Grace.
- Mark Nepo (paraphrased)
One Living Sense
The urge to describe it is so strong,
yet all words fall short.
The longing to paint it is intense,
yet even the brightest colours pale in comparison to its felt vibrancy.
It is found in each moment that I dare to fully enter,
the space between giving and receiving.
I gasp as I fall into it,
and rediscover that the void I fear
is fuller than the mind could ever imagine.
- Patti Wardlaw