Below Our Strangeness

Read Mark’s weekly reflections on The Huffington Post.

I believe we are all connected at the deepest and most elemental level and that experience and circumstance manipulate us away from our better selves. This poem speaks of that place.

My soul tells me, we were

all broken from the same name-

less heart, and every living thing

wakes with a piece of that original

heart aching its way into blossom.

This is why we know each other

below our strangeness, why when

we fall, we lift each other, or when

in pain, we hold each other, why

when sudden with joy, we dance

together. Life is the many pieces

of that great heart loving itself

back together.

A Question to Walk With: What is your fundamental view of human nature and life? Do you feel we are self-contained life forms, only interested in self-preservation? Or do you feel we are interconnected beings that need relationship to survive and thrive? How does your fundamental view inform the life decisions you make?