Mark Nepo - Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity

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For all the great teachers of heart I have met along the way, the first being Grandma Minnie, whose immigrant heart plowed its way like a whale across the ocean and the century so that her son could become a woodworker and her grandson a poet.

The old world is gone and still,

one candle can light many, if we

work with what were given and

resist the suffering in not suffering.

MN

Know that every deed counts, that every word is power. Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art.

Abraham Heschel

W E LIVE IN a turbulent time. Storms are everywhere, of every shape and size. And like every generation before us, like every souls journey on Earth, we must learn the art of surviving storms, so we can endure and build a better world.

The reason heartwork is so important in surviving storms is that, as a tree needs to deepen its roots and widen its trunk to endure the force of unexpected storms, we need to know our true self so we can deepen our roots and solidify our connection to all Spirit and all life. Then, we, too, can endure the force of unexpected storms. This is especially relevant now.

Every generation has its share of turbulence and chaospersonal storms, relational storms, life storms. And all the traditions offer practices and resources to help us be strong enough and kind enough to meet the challenges of our day. It is our turn to rediscover these practices and resources in order to repair ourselves and our world. All this is inner practice. All this is heartwork.

The first two chapters of this book describe the storms of our timewhere we are and how we got here. They outline the fault lines of our refracted society, including: our loss of relationship, the isolation of technology, the dissolution of reality, the loss of a common good, the press of narcissism over inclusion, and our addiction to violence. The third chapter explores the nature and life of storms. And the fourth chapter unpacks the purpose of goodness.

The rest of the book describes the perennial practices and resources that we can reacquaint ourselves with in order to restore our basic human nature and transcend our perceived differences. This task is nothing short of the remaking of humanity, yet one more time.

The hearts process of renewal and connection is the oldest and most reliable resource we have. Following the heart as our teacher leads to an inner exploration we each must map for ourselves, though there are common passages along the way. Once the rubble clears, we, like those before us, are inevitably called to build the world one more time, admitting that we need each other.

As in my other books, I offer writing and conversation prompts (Questions to Walk With) for you to personalize the themes uncovered along the way. And as with my other books, I encourage you to take your time in moving through the topics opened here, so you can integrate what arises inwardly with the unfolding of your days.

Having journeyed this far, I firmly believe that by staying devoted to the difficult and beautiful journey of being human, our soul can blossom like an orchid in the dark, and we can restore our kinship with each other and all living things. The web of life is stronger than our blindness to it.

In Tony Kushners epic play Angels in America, a deep refrain occurs when the main character, Prior, says repeatedly with increasing urgency and conviction that he wants more life. In his notes, Kushner reveals that what stirred this motif was his discovery that the Hebrew word for blessing means more life. This is the blessing that comes from being educated by the heartwe are given more life. This is the blessing I wish for everyone who reads this bookthat as a fish grows stronger for having a healthy and muscular gill, you are given more life for having an expansive and well-tuned heart.

Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Dont fight them. Just find a new way to stand.

Oprah Winfrey

All serious daring starts within.

Eudora Welty

T HE LONG SWELLS of history crest and crash, century after century. The kindness and cruelty of an age expand and contract. The openness and narrowness of how we learn either grows or collapses depending on how each generation reacts to the storms they encounter and create. As I write this, a good part of humanity is in such a collapse of narrowness, in such a contraction of cruelty. And though we have crashed, the harsh beauty of waves is that they always reform, gathering all theyve been through to rise and crest again. Likewise, we can learn from what weve been through. We can expand again and open our minds and hearts. We can find our way back to kindness, if we dare to see each other in ourselves and accept the truth of what weve broken. Then, we can see what needs repair. The chapters in this opening section explore where we are, how the old world is gone, as well as mapping the fault lines in our society. Then, there is the unfolding of the nature and life of storms, through which we can inhabit our place in the unending purpose of goodness.

A S THE PANDEMIC spread around the world, it brought moments from my cancer journey sharply before me. One profound moment in particular echoes where we are in a compelling way. It was the moment of my diagnosis more than thirty years ago. I was sitting in a doctors office when I heard the words, You have cancer.

I was, of course, frightened and disoriented. I thought, he must have made a mistake. How could this be me? Stunned, I left that appointment reeling. But the door I had walked through to keep that appointment was gone. There was no way back to my life before that moment. Life would never be the same. The old world was gone.

I think this transformative moment has gripped the world. Collectively, the world before the pandemic is gone. There is no way back to life before the coronavirus. We have no choice but to accept the truth of what is and love our way forward, discovering the new life unlived ahead of us.

To be sure, there is nothing glorious or mysterious about disease. The cancer I had was not as important as what it opened in me. Likewise, there is nothing glorious or mysterious about the coronavirus. It can never be as important as what it is opening in humanity. As cancer was a catalyst for transformation when I was ill, we need to ask: What is the appearance of this pandemic trying to open in us and teach us? How is it transforming us as a global family?

In the Jewish tradition, the word sabbath literally means the one day we dont turn one thing into another. And we are being forced to stop, to be still, to halt our out-of-balance doing. In essence, all of humanity has been ushered into a global sabbath. We have no choice but to stop running from here to there, to stop planning, scheming, manipulating, even to stop dreaming, to stop turning one thing into another. All to be where we are, so we might discover, yet again, that everything is sacred and that we are each other.