Spigot

We met in a home for fallen angels, 
a half-way house between
the heaven of lost innocence
and the hell of unhinged hopes, 
learning to speak in the
mother tongue of the heart, 

because the language of everyday life
can never serve as a lifeboat
in the ocean of our loss
and it can never call us back
to the everlasting shore
where we might learn to walk
with our wounded grace
back into our lives,  

and because it is only
in the mother tongue
that we may speak our true names, 
given to us before the birth of stars, 
and which, once spoken, 
free us forever to be ourselves. 

Then, gradually, one step at a time, 
we may learn to carry the ocean in us, 
wide and spacious enough
to float all our sorrow and all our joy, 
all at once, filling us until it flows, 
unexpectedly, out of our eyes, 

at sunsets and string balloons, 
in cafes and conversations, 
and even at the sight
of a candy wrapper
left on a street corner, 

because we are becoming
a spigot for the water of life. 

Written in commemoration of the weekend seminar, The One Life You Are Given, with Mark Nepo at Omega Institute in New York July 28-30, 2017. Students shared touching stories about the loss of a child, the challenges of serious illness, and the disillusion of cherished dreams. Together, under Mark's tutelage, we also embraced the heart cracked open, those moments when we shed tears for no reason, when the dam breaks and our joy and our sorrow flows out of our eyes with almost no provocation. When we are willing to be touched by life, we come to love this one life we are given no mater how damaged or distorted it may be.

© Nick LeForce
All Rights Reserved

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