Mark Nepo

I think

I would return to that what matters most is being as fully present and wholehearted as we can be.

Knowing that we can't do it all the time.

But how do I behold the life that I meet?

Because I think one of the things about the fifth season, to go to the latest book,

it was the journey for every human being once we're here is to awaken so that there's as little as possible between what lives in here and what lives out here and why i speak so much about authenticity is that i believe that when we're authentic the practice and devotion to being authentic

makes us a clear inlet between the inner life and the outer life, makes us kind and useful, makes us receptive.

And that's an inlet.

One of my books is The Endless Practice.

Staying that open is an endless practice because we're never done.

And there's a great metaphor for this, which is what's called an asequia.

on a sequia in the south it's actually the word comes from the arabic because in desert climates and you'll see what this means but in the southwest native americans for centuries and the sequia is a sluice way or a natural water flow let's say from the top of a mountain where snow after winter will create a water course to the bottom of the mountain and

Villages and tribes would settle there because there's a natural water source.

It's right there.

So naturally, over a winter, debris would fill the acequia.

Trees, limbs would fall in it.

Animals would build nests.

Stones would erode.

So that once a year at least, there was a ritual where the entire tribe, including children and elders, would take a few days

And from the top of the mountain to the bottom, clear out the sequence.