{"id":4035,"date":"2018-09-10T13:11:10","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T18:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/?p=4035"},"modified":"2018-09-10T13:11:10","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T18:11:10","slug":"between-troubles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2018\/09\/10\/between-troubles\/","title":{"rendered":"Between Troubles"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>The old painter tells me that he loves to drive through small towns, so he can sketch the light and strike up conversations with the young woman who pumps his gas and the lobster fisherman who lets him bait his traps. He loves to meet life as it bubbles up between troubles. Last summer, he wanted to meet that poet from Nebraska, the one who speaks so simply of all that matters. He didn\u2019t want to bother him, just to say how grateful he is for what his poems open. Eight hundred miles later, he was asking for the poet in the old bookstore. Then he drifted into the antique store in Garland where he bought four lanterns. It\u2019s there the owner said, \u201cOh Ted, he lives in Dwight.\u201d So the painter took his lanterns and drove the back road to Dwight where he left a note on Ted\u2019s window that read, \u201cYour poems matter.\u201d Once home, he set up the lanterns and confessed that he needs more light as he talks to death. The next day, he painted a barn he saw in Dwight and sent it to Ted. In telling me this, he\u2019s all aglow, a lantern himself. He takes my hand and wells up, \u201cI love this life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>A Question to Walk With: In conversation with a friend or loved one, have each of you share a story about a time when you started out to give to someone and found something unexpected for you along the way.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/621\/2018\/09\/lantern.jpeg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4038\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/621\/2018\/09\/lantern-1024x683.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>This excerpt is from my book, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Things-That-Join-Sea-Sky\/dp\/1622038991\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Things That Join the Sea and the Sky: Field Notes on Living<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>*Photo credit: Pixabay<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The old painter tells me that he loves to drive through small towns, so he can sketch the light and strike up conversations with the young woman who pumps his gas and the lobster fisherman who lets him bait his traps. He loves to meet life as it bubbles up between troubles. Last summer, he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2538,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marks-weekly-reflections"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Between Troubles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The old painter tells me that he loves to drive through small towns, so he can sketch the light and strike up conversations with the young woman who pumps\" \/>\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\/2018\/09\/10\/between-troubles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Between Troubles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The old painter tells me that he loves to drive through small towns, so he can sketch the light and strike up conversations with the young woman who pumps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2018\/09\/10\/between-troubles\/\" \/>\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=\"2018-09-10T18:11:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/621\/2018\/09\/lantern-1024x683.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\/2018\/09\/10\/between-troubles\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2018\/09\/10\/between-troubles\/\",\"name\":\"Between Troubles\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-09-10T18:11:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-10T18:11:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/#\/schema\/person\/8dd9a050df7e544bc3c7dc9a587321d5\"},\"description\":\"The old painter tells me that he loves to drive through small towns, so he can sketch the light and strike up conversations with the young woman who pumps\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2018\/09\/10\/between-troubles\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2018\/09\/10\/between-troubles\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2018\/09\/10\/between-troubles\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Between Troubles\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/\",\"name\":\"Field Notes on Living\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/#\/schema\/person\/8dd9a050df7e544bc3c7dc9a587321d5\",\"name\":\"Mark Nepo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f01b382981d0a1914ee5686c03225bdb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f01b382981d0a1914ee5686c03225bdb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Nepo\"},\"description\":\"Mark Nepo is a poet and spiritual teacher who has taught in the fields of poetry and spirituality for over 50 years. 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Recent work includes Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity, was published in September 2022. (St. Martin's. Essentials), The Book of Soul (St. Martin\u2019s Essentials, 2020), which was honored by Spirituality &amp; Practice as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2020, and received a Gold Nautilus Award; Drinking from the River of Light (Sounds True, 2019), earned an Independent Publisher Book Silver Award for Self Help 2020, and a 2019 Nautilus Silver Award for Personal Growth &amp; Self Help; and More Together Than Alone (Atria, 2018) cited by Spirituality &amp; Practice as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2018. Mark is a regular columnist for Spirituality &amp; Health Magazine. 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