Bread for the Journey

In these fast-paced times, the exquisite risk facing each of us every day is to slow down and “still our own house” so that we may experience life rather than simply manage it. This workshop, based on Mark Nepo’s most recent book, offers resources and skills on how to negotiate life and be present in the world without losing sight of who we are. As a poet, teacher, and cancer survivor, Nepo shares his own spiritual path, including a battle with illness that helped him understand how only by daring to embrace all that life has to offer can we come to a deeper appreciation of its meaning and beauty.

Unfolding through the exploration of topics such as “The Struggle to Be Real,” “There Are Teachers Everywhere,” “The Rhythm of Kindness,” and “The Gift of Surprise,” and through the use of meditation, journaling, dialogue, deep listening and the poetry of being together, this workshop offers fresh perspective on the art of being alive, providing essential insight into how we can minimize what stands between us and our experience of life.

To register please see www.eomega.org or call 800-944-1001.

Book Review Published in the April 2005 issue of Spirituality and Health by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

The Exquisite Risk: Daring to Live an Authentic Life by Mark Nepo
Harmony Books - Hardcover $21.00 ISBN 1400051770
Order the book: The Exquisite Risk : Daring to Live an Authentic Life

We were so inspired by Mark Nepo's The Book of Awakening that we gave it an award as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2000. He is a program officer and poet-in-residence at the Fetzer Institute, a teacher of poetry and spirituality, and a guest speaker and leader of workshops across the country. He sees this new volume as "an intimate companion in exploring the intoxicating quandaries of being alive." He covers four areas: teachers, steering our way to center, going there together, and honoring the mystery.

He asks us to slow down, be alert, and open our hearts and minds to what is in front of us. The exquisite risk in all of this is to hold nothing back, least of all our love and our energy to do our best at whatever we do.

Nepo is a cancer survivor whose journey into the country of illness has made him truly appreciative of the marvels and wonders of everyday life. "For me, almost dying meant experiencing small amounts of death so deeply and rawly that the very elements of living and dying scoured my basic understanding of things." He is a great storyteller who has much wisdom to impart. Even the little asides are significant. He recounts a South African proverb that explains why two antelope walk together: so that one can blow the dust from the other's eyes.

In an intimate confession, the author shares his compulsion to do it all or to "experience greed." But by spreading himself all over the place and trying to understand everything, he found himself having trouble being present to anything. It took him a while to discover that the moment opened to him when he came to it empty-handed.

Nepo finds spiritual teachers all around him and challenges us to pick up the habit. He recalls the magic moments when he awoke from surgery to savor the miracle of freshly squeezed orange juice and when he experienced awe in the presence of his 94-year-old grandmother staring into eternity. He has a nice little essay on the difference between giving attention and getting attention. Most of us are much more interested in maneuvering the spotlight onto ourselves than we are in listening deeply to another person.

When Native American medicine men talk to the sick, they usually ask three
questions: When was the last time you sang? When was the last time you danced? When was the last time you told your story? Nepo does all three with a piece on how Africans use song as a way of overcoming trials and tribulations. He shares a vignette about dancer Ted Shawn who got polio and followed a deep inner voice that told him to leave divinity school and begin to dance. He eventually regained the use of both legs. The healing process for this dancer was in "embodying God."

As you read this enthralling and life-affirming book, you are sure to find yourself having goose bumps as you make heart connections through these incredible essays. Frank Ostaski, founder of the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, told the author that the most frequent question to arise from those who are dying is: Have I loved well? The Exquisite Risk is Mark Nepo's love letter to all of us.

"Once again, Mark Nepo draws us to the heart of what matters. He illuminates love with the light of his own understanding." - Marianne Williamson

"The Exquisite Risk is a celebration of an honest life, lived on purpose. Mark Nepo's words, like water on a stone, gently but firmly score a path for us to follow, a path that leads us into the place of remembering what a life is for; an invitation to tell the truth, remain close to the earth, and love well. What, more than this, can we ever ask of a book as our companion?" - Wayne Muller, author of Learning to Pray, and Sabbath.

Order the book: The Exquisite Risk : Daring to Live an Authentic Life

"Mark Nepo's "The Exquisite Risk" is one of the best books we've ever read on what it takes to live an authentic life."
--Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality & Health

Spirituality & Health selected The Exquisite Risk as one of the best spiritual books of 2005.

For more info about Mark see his website at www.marknepo.com.

Other books by Mark Nepo