Touching What Matters

Life invites us to go beyond our comfort zome again and again. Often we can avoid stepping out into the unknown. But sometimes, life hands us a new life without asking and without our permission. Such is the case when someone we love dies. Death means change, but also is an opportunity for new life. A monumental change in my life happened when I had just turned 30 years old. My father died. Little did I know that was a change that would lead to other big changes in my life--including becoming a mother, leaving law for seminary, having cancer myself, and then leaving home for South Africa. My podcast this week begins with my father and my 30th birthday. That was a time that I reconnected with what matters most.

The podcast begins with a poem by Mark Nepo from his poetry collection Reduced to Joy. It is called "Made from Bone."

When I can be truth,

it grows more and more clear

when it is necessary to tell the truth.

That is, when I have access to the place

within me that is lighted. I don't have

to speak heatedly. I can just give away

warmth. When I am still enough to brush

quietly with eternity, I don't have to

speak of God. I can just offer peace

to those around me.

A tree grows so it can convey wind.

It is not the wind. And a person grows

in order to convey spirit.

They say that animals recharge

their innovence each time they hoof

the earth. And we are reborn

each time we touch what matters.

When have you touched what matters? Was that moment offering you a new way forward? To live your truth?

Note: Best way to get podcast to work is to click the left bottom of the audio link where the beginning time is situated. Then click the forward button in the middle of the screen.