Mark Nepo's Weekly Reflection: Speaking What We Know to be True

The story of Moses carries an archetype that we all must face and live with. Of all his brethren, Moses was closest to God. Indeed, he climbed Mount Sinai to receive the ten commandments and heard God directly. But due to an accident as a child in which his tongue was burned by a hot coal, he stammered greatly. All his life, he suffered an inability to easily speak what he knew to be true. Though he listened to God directly, he couldn’t convey what he heard to others.

Inevitably, this is everyone’s fate when crossing from the inner world to the outer world. We all have trouble speaking what matters and yet we must try. Often, we are misled to think that falling short in how we convey the truth is a failure, when it is not trying at all that damages us. For even light through a crack is illuminating.

Like it or not, there is always a crossover from inner to outer, from the urge of heart to the reach of hand, from the feeling rising in our throat to the tumble of words that spills out. Just as you can’t swim in the deep till you make it through the surf, you can’t move from inner to outer without crossing the surf that exists between our being and our humanness. This is one of the constant struggles in being human: to endure the refraction of all that is holy as it moves through us into the world.

A Question to Walk With: Describe one truth you perceive clearly, but which you have trouble putting into words. Try to describe the feeling of this truth.

This excerpt is from my book in progress, Falling Down and Getting Up.

For a full calendar of upcoming events, visit:

ThreeIntentions.com

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Mark’s 2022 Calendar:

AUG 26-28: Mercy By the Sea, 167 Neck Rd, Madison CT, weekend workshop, Reclaiming Our Humanity: Being Fierce and Tender in Our Call to Love, Fri 7-9:30PM EST Sat 9:30-5:30PM EST, Sun 9:30-1230PM-- IN PERSON

REGISTER HERE. Event is in person.

OCT 28-30: Harmony Hill Retreat Center, Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity, A Weekend Retreat, IN PERSON

REGISTER HERE. Event is in person.

SEPT 16-18: Friday Night Reading and Weekend Retreat (Sat and Sun), Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity, The Sophia Institute, Charleston, SC, or call 843-720-8528,  -- IN PERSON