Recognizing the Vastness That Has the Potential to Transform Us

“The rewards are infinite when we keep looking.”

As soon as I read that sentence by Mark Nepo, I thought of my friend walking the shore of Boneyard Beach immersed in his creative process.

Nepo’s words are in the chapter “Going with the Stream” from his book “Drinking From the River of Light.” The chapter begins with an epigraph by Yogananda:

Never give up, then surrender

I’ve been working on an essay to mark the starting point of where I was a year ago–when I realized I had (finally) crossed the threshold into the second half of life. This realization marked a new beginning, yet also a need to let go of many things and ways of doing.  In my writer’s eye, I see the words but have yet to find the flow.  As I read the the chapter “Going with the Stream,” there was an affirmative yes of deep understanding in Nepo’s words:

One of the braveries of perseverance is the commitment to keep looking, again and again, to keep returning to what moves us and intrigues us, as we might return to shy teachers who need to know that we’re not giving up before they’ll reveal their teachings.

…. Regardless of what these great painters produced by way of their devotion, what is most instructive is the immeasurable way their seeing changed for staying so engaged and then surrendering. Sustained inquiry changes how we see and hear and that changes how we know life and the world. Like a climber who never gives up, we arrive at the summit, only to surrender to the vastness that transforms us.