Behind the Thunder

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This fall, Sounds True is publishing a box set of teaching conversations based on the poems in my book Reduced to Joy. The poems are the teachers and unfold the journey from our head to our heart. For the next two months, I’m happy to be previewing poems and reflections from the box set.

There’s no escaping the turmoil of experience, no avoiding the storms that toss us about or the light that follows. It’s a paradox we all have to meet and endure.

Behind the Thunder

I keep looking for one more teacher,

only to find that fish learn from water

and birds learn from sky.

If you want to learn about the sea,

it helps to be at sea.

If you want to learn about compassion,

it helps to be in love.

If you want to learn about healing,

it helps to know of suffering.

The strong live in the storm

without worshipping the storm.

A Question to Walk With: Describe one thing you’ve learned about healing from your experience of suffering.