Mark Nepo Quote
Inside Gravity Inside gravity, the same things happen, just slower. When a plate breaks, we call it an accident. When a heart breaks, we call it sad. If it is ours, we say tragic. When a dream breaks, we sometimes call it unfair. Yet ants drop dirt and manage more and birds drop food and peck again. But as humans, when we drop what we need, philosophies and complaints abound. It's not that we moan, but that we stop living to hear ourselves moan. Still, stars collide and histories begin. In our world, something is always letting go and something is always hitting the Earth. Often that which lets go survives by releasing, by not holding on until what needs to go is ripped from it. Often that which is hit survives by staying soft, by allowing what hits it to temporarily shape it the way stones shape mud. As humans, we take turns letting go and being hit. Love softens this process, and peace slows it down, until in moments that are blessed, we seem to play catch with what we need.
Mark Nepo
Inside Gravity Inside gravity, the same things happen, just slower. When a plate breaks, we call it an accident. When a heart breaks, we call it sad. If it is ours, we say tragic. When a dream breaks, we sometimes call it unfair. Yet ants drop dirt and manage more and birds drop food and peck again. But as humans, when we drop what we need, philosophies and complaints abound. It's not that we moan, but that we stop living to hear ourselves moan. Still, stars collide and histories begin. In our world, something is always letting go and something is always hitting the Earth. Often that which lets go survives by releasing, by not holding on until what needs to go is ripped from it. Often that which is hit survives by staying soft, by allowing what hits it to temporarily shape it the way stones shape mud. As humans, we take turns letting go and being hit. Love softens this process, and peace slows it down, until in moments that are blessed, we seem to play catch with what we need.
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being, complicated, critical thinking, daoism, emotion, feeling, hectic, life, meditation, modern life
About Mark Nepo
Nepo has a doctorate in English. He taught for 18 years at the State University of New York in Albany, New York. He then moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan. In his 30s he was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma, a struggle which helped to form his philosophy of experiencing life fully while staying in relationship to an unknowable future.
In 2010 Oprah Winfrey chose Nepo′'s The Book of Awakening as one of her Ultimate Favorite Things for her farewell season, launching it to the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list. Nepo has appeared several times with Oprah Winfrey on her Super Soul Sunday program on OWN TV, and was named to Oprah's SuperSoul100 list of visionaries and influential leaders. He was also interviewed by Robin Roberts on Good Morning America. Oprah has also written about Nepo in her O! magazine column, "What I Know for Sure," and featured him on her “The Life You Want” class on Being Fully Present in April 2022.
Recent work includes Surviving Storms (St. Martin's Essentials Sept 2022), The Book of Soul (St. Martin's Essentials, 2020), a Nautilus Book Award Winner and named by Spirituality & Practice as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2020; Drinking from the River of Light (Sounds True, 2019), a Nautilus Book Award Winner; More Together Than Alone (Atria, 2018) cited as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2018 by Spirituality & Practice; Things That Join the Sea and the Sky (Sounds True, 2017), a Nautilus Book Award Winner; The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting (Sounds True, 2016), a Nautilus Book Award Winner; The One Life We're Given (Atria, 2016 ) cited by Spirituality & Practice as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2016; Inside the Miracle (Sounds True) selected by Spirituality & Health Magazine as one of the top ten best books of 2015; The Endless Practice (Atria) cited by Spirituality & Practice as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2014; and Seven Thousand Ways to Listen (Atria), which won the 2012 Books for a Better Life Award. The Exquisite Risk was listed by Spirituality & Practice as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2005, calling it "one of the best books we've ever read on what it takes to live an authentic life." Mark became a regular columnist for Spirituality & Health Magazine in 2017.
In 2015, Mark was given a Life-Achievement Award by AgeNation. And in 2016, he was named by Watkins: Mind Body Spirit as one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People.
For more information visit Mark at marknepo.com, Live.MarkNepo.com, threeintentions.com and harrywalker.com.