Vow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I wake this morning thirty years to the day that the tumor vanished from my skull. I am still here. How is it possible, that the ounce of Spirit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2017\/10\/16\/vow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I wake this morning thirty years to the day that the tumor vanished from my skull. I am still here. How is it possible, that the ounce of Spirit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2017\/10\/16\/vow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Field Notes on Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MarkNepo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-16T16:49:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/621\/2017\/10\/cricket.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"511\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Nepo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@marknepo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Nepo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2017\/10\/16\/vow\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2017\/10\/16\/vow\/\",\"name\":\"Vow\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-16T16:49:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-10-16T16:49:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/#\/schema\/person\/8dd9a050df7e544bc3c7dc9a587321d5\"},\"description\":\"I wake this morning thirty years to the day that the tumor vanished from my skull. 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{"id":3686,"date":"2017-10-16T11:49:45","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T16:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/?p=3686"},"modified":"2017-10-16T11:49:45","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T16:49:45","slug":"vow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2017\/10\/16\/vow\/","title":{"rendered":"Vow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I wake this morning thirty years to the day <\/em><\/p>\n

that the tumor vanished from my skull. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I am still here. How is it possible, that the<\/p>\n

ounce of Spirit that wouldn\u2019t go out should<\/p>\n

guide me to today? Like a spiritual cricket, I<\/p>\n

only know one song\u2014that everything is holy. I<\/p>\n

sing this at the close of every day. I try to live it<\/p>\n

at the break of every dawn. I\u2019ve seen ordinary<\/p>\n

wonders, day after day, and ordinary heroes,<\/p>\n

one after another, trying to make sense of<\/p>\n

this Mystery we swim in, only to care for<\/p>\n

each other along the way. That\u2019s the only<\/p>\n

sense there is. Almost dying whispered this<\/p>\n

into my bones. And I have wanted to embrace<\/p>\n

everything and everyone ever since. Perhaps<\/p>\n

this urge to care and hold is what makes<\/p>\n

everything grow. Perhaps this urge, brought<\/p>\n

on by being broken open, makes the birds<\/p>\n

sing. Perhaps this inevitable prying of our will<\/p>\n

makes the human spirit reach for what it knows<\/p>\n

to be true, finding the beginnings of light<\/p>\n

in everything and everyone. For thirty years,<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve served this urge to bring everything together.<\/p>\n

$\"cricket\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

*photo credit: Johnny Mckane<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"