Outstretch Your Arms

Mark Nepo
2 min readAug 29, 2022

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Along the way, people we love

fall from the tightrope and vanish

and we wonder, why not me?

Then, there is a pandemic and

thousands cough and die with

no warning.

Or simply getting older, the view

widens but the path narrows. As

if we’re dancing on the edge of

a cliff.

But it has always been this way.

We are only now aware of it.

This is what the ancients were

honoring when they painted

their faces and danced around

the fire.

As if pain is the bark and joy

is the sap.

What other dance is there?

SEPT 11: Mark Nepo in Conversation with Brooke Warner, Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity, 1–2:30PM PST/4–5:30PM EST, FREE, register at the legendary bookstore Book Passage, (web link)online

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, (web link) — IN PERSON & ONLINE

OCT 28–30: Harmony Hill Retreat Center, Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity, A Weekend Retreat, (web link) — IN PERSON

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Mark Nepo
Mark Nepo

Written by Mark Nepo

New York Times #1 bestselling author of The Book of Awakening, poet, spiritual teacher and philosopher. Learn more @MarkNepo.com or live.marknepo.com

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