Filling The Emptiness With Serenity

The below post by Mark Nepo discusses three important ideas: 1 – our journey in rediscovering who we truly are, 2 – the acceptance of life as is and 3 – finding love and peace in the struggle.

Regardless of where we come from, the concept of being like everyone else and the acceptance of a formulaic idea of happiness get imbued into our psyche at a very early age. “You must be someone”, “You must have a bank account”, “You must own things” gets beat into us as the only way to live a life.  No space is left for originality and individuality.  And then we suffer because society’s concept of how to live a good life might be in direct opposition to our own ideas. I’m not saying having a bank account or owning things is a bad thing.  Every quality for a life chosen and every path taken is right when it is in accordance with one’s being.  And so recouping our own way becomes imperative to our journey.

Accepting life as is requires the letting go of a popular concept that life can be void of trials, tribulations and suffering.  If you think about it, you will also agree that is not possible.  Every single one of us has and will continue to experience loss and difficulties as part of living.  People we love will pass away, things we want won’t happen, we will age and we will die. But accepting all the “ups” and “downs”, “good” and “bad” as expressions of life will help us navigate these tumultuous waters. If we can find in every situation the kernel of experience then we can find acceptance.

Finally it is in the moments of complete love and serenity that we find the knowing that our journey is unique and worth taking.

But this love is not accompanied by fireworks.  It is calm, serene and often experienced when we let ourselves be.

Please read on…

The One Conversation: ‘We Are Each Born With a Gift and an Emptiness’

By Mark Nepo

I keep returning to the ever-present riddle that being who we are is the necessary adventure. It unlocks everything, not because our self is so important but because our essential nature that our self carries is the immediate doorway to everything that is life-sustaining. We learn early on that being who we are means fending off unwanted influence without cutting ourselves off from the chance to learn from others…Continued