The title for this blog, Breathing Like Stone, is one that I stumbled on. It arose for me from a reading from Mark Nepo’s wonderful collection of entries in The Book of Awakening…
It is quite humbling to realize that we spend a lifetime gaining grain after grain of this wisdom, working to understand it and struggling to express it and share it, only to become more and more a part of it, unspeakable ourselves. Over time, we age into a stillness that breathes like stone, exposed beyond resistance. Perhaps this is the most poignant of paradoxes, nature’s safeguard against letting too much of the mystery out. We take years of living to squeeze a few precious words from all that will not speak, and steadily, being shaped by our suffering and polished by our joy, we become the Earth, knowing more and saying less. Ironically, after a lifetime, we may finally have important things to say, just as we lose our ability to say them.
Ironic indeed, as I type away, trying to express something of worth!
Mark’s gentle words remind me to age into a stillness and to become the Earth, knowing more and saying less.
I type words. You read these words… and perhaps, in the mystery of it all, we become more a part of it…
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