Dawna Markova - I Will Not Die an Unlived Life: Reclaiming Purpose and Passion

I Will Not Die An Unlived Life is a moving book in the best sense of the word: read it with your mind descended into your heart, and it will move you closer to living life to its fullest.

PARKER J. PALMER, author of Let Your Life Speak and The Courage to Teach

Dawna Markova has long been a passionate and clear voice in the life of our tribe. In her latest book, I Will Not Die an Unlived Life, she shares and models the essence of skillful befriending: befriending the unknown guest who lives within, befriending each other, and befriending the world we are shaping. This book is a personal laboratory that allows us to glimpse our common seeds.

MARK NEPO, author of The Book of Awakening and Acre of Light

The vitality and passion that exudes from I Will Not Die An Unlived Life promises to bring inspiration to every fortunate soul who reads it. Dawna's profoundly personal yet universal insights compel each of us to discover the tender heart of our own humanity, to realize the promise and potential of our precious lives, and to awaken a fierce commitment to live in a way we will be proud of when inevitably it is our time to die.

JOEL LEVEY, PH.D. and MICHELLE LEVEY, M.A.,

authors of: Living in Balance and Simple Meditation & Relaxation

There is no deeper, nor more challenging, question than how we will live our lives. It confronts us at a collective as well as an intimate level. While we are waiting for the circumstances of our lives to match our expectations, life is waiting for us to release our expectations and realize the possibility that exists now, regardless of our circumstances. Only then, as Dawna Markova's book shows so beautifully, does anger become compassion and fear melt, to reveal courage, passion and love.

PETER M. SENGE, author of The Dance of Change and The Fifth Discipline

Like the lotus on its cover, I Will Not Die an Unlived Life by Dawna Markova is potent with meaning and graceful in form . In it Markova offers fresh approaches to bring to the exploration of meaning in our lives.

MAGGIE OMAN SHANNON, editor of Prayers for Healing

Other books by DAWNA MARKOVA

The Art of the Possible

The Open Mind

No Enemies Within

Learning Unlimited, coauthored

with Anne Powell

An Unused Intelligence, coauthored

with Andy Bryner

How Your Child Is Smart, coauthored

with Anne Powell

coeditor, Random Acts of Kindness

contributor, Fabric of the Future;

For She Is the Tree of Life

Copyright 2000 by Dawna Markova

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews. For information, contact: Conari Press, 2550 Ninth Street, Suite 101, Berkeley, California 94710-2551.

Conari Press books are distributed by Publishers Group West.

ISBN: 1-57324-101-6

Cover Photography: Courtesy of Photonica, Fumio Otsuka 1992

Cover Design: Ame Beanland

Book Design: Suzannne Albertson

Author Photo: Hollie Noble

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Markova, Dawna, 1942

I will not die an unlived life : reclaiming purpose and passion / Dawna Markova.

p. cm.

ISBN 1-57324-101-6

1. Self-perception. 2. Markova, Dawna, 1942- I. Title.

BF697.5.S43 M27 2000

158.1dc21

00-009527

Printed in the United States of America on recycled paper.

01 02 03 Data Repro 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

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who insist on breaking free of the limitations of their previous history,

who wish to love the life they live, live a life they can love,

and

who are committed to serving the best of what can be possible.

WE ARE LIVING IN TIMES OF OLYMPIC LEVELS OF DISTRACTION and busyness. Most of the Western world is caught up in doing, doing, doing-we have become trained to do in order to have so that maybe in some distant time we can be. This is all backward, from the point of view of the soul. As we become quiet enough to listen to the longings of the soul, we may arrive at a deeper level of activity in our lives. We may first live the being and from that will emerge the doing. This is clearly the experience of Dawna Markova, who is a master of the essential questions, such as, What am I more curious about than afraid of? She stops our analytical minds and takes us into our heartminds, where the soul resides and where we can connect with our inner wisdom.

When reading this book, from the beginning we were reminded of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's classic Gift from the Sea, which continues to be passed on from generation to generation for more than half a century. I Will Not Die an Unlived Life is just such a book for the new century. We found ourselves reading it aloud to one another, highlighting and underlining it so extensively that it is spiderwebby with marks, exclamation points, and notes.

Never have the words slow down been so desperately needed as they are now. We laughed out loud at Dawna's story of doing nothing for forty-five minutes and looking around as if waiting for the Time Police to arrest [her] for being nonproductive.

Markova asks brilliant questions as she gently challenges us to exit the fast lane and move into the slow river of wonder, which summons us to our true passion. She catches our logical minds and prompts us to remember, Why are we here? She stimulates us to ask essential questions, have more conversations, and tell more stories. She speaks the language of poetry, questions, storytelling, and deep reflection.

I Will Not Die an Unlived Life takes us on a journey of what it would mean to live fully, sensually alive, and passionately, on purpose. She reminds us of what we already intuit: My head is stuffed with knowledge, but something in me is still starving. We are compelled to set down the book and do some soul searching of our own. It is a book meant to be savored, read and re-read, then shared with others, and used as a guide for retreats. This surely will come after being so intimately connected with Markova's journey into herself. Anyone on a spiritual quest, seeking to discover their own deep wisdom, and uncover their calling will be enriched and energized in a powerful and gentle way, just as we were.

by Justine and Michael Toms, cofounders of New Dimensions Broadcasting Network, cocreators of the internationally syndicated New Dimensions radio series, and coauthors of True Work: Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do

I will not die an unlived life.

I will not live in fear

of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

to allow my living to open me,

to make me less afraid,

more accessible;

to loosen my heart

until it becomes a wing,

a torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance,

to live so that which came to me as seed

goes to the next as blossom