Midway in Our Journey

MIDWAY IN OUR JOURNEY

Just when we’re softened by the years,

when we have enough experience to see

for ourselves, our maps are torn from us.

This can be frightening, but there’s

divine timing in the dissolution of a

stubborn mind, the way an inlet waits

on the last rock to crumble so it can

find its destiny in the sea. Losing the

way set out by others is necessary so we

can discover for ourselves what it means

to be alive. Now we can burn the clothes

others have laid out for us, not in anger

but to light our way. Now we can let the

soul spill its honey on the unleavened life

we’ve been carrying. Now we can rise.

A Question to Walk With: In conversation with a friend or a loved one, describe a time that your map was torn from you and how you made your way.

Sounds True recently published a new, expanded edition of Inside the Miracle: Enduring Suffering, Approaching Wholeness, which gathers twenty-eight years of my writing and teaching about suffering, healing, and wholeness, including thirty-nine new poems and prose pieces not yet published. One of the great transforming passages in my life was having cancer in my mid-thirties. This experience unraveled the way I see the world and made me a student of all spiritual paths. With a steadfast belief in our aliveness, I hope what’s in this book will help you meet the transformation that waits in however you’re being forged. Midway in Our Journey is an excerpt from the book.