"We All Journey Alone Together"
- devabritow
- 14 minutes ago
- 5 min read
I am reading a phenomenal book at the moment. I'm not going to talk about the book yet because I feel like I'm on the cusp of something big, with the import of the book building like an inevitability - each chapter taking my breath away and making me simultaneously want to speed read and stop and reflect. I've opted for the latter approach. The book needs my full attention. It deserves my full attention. And, I want to give it my all when I eventually write about it.
"The Moment of Dawn"
But, a post is due this week, so I spent a portion of the last couple of days thinking about what I was going to write, and not really coming up with anything until the eleventh hour, or last night if we're talking exact timeframe. I stood in front of my bookshelf and my eye fell on Mark Nepo's The Book of Awakening. I've had it for a few months but hadn't really browsed through it. The book reminds me of Ryan Holiday's The Daily Stoic, in that it offers daily (some might call it spiritual) wisdom and guidance, inspired by Nepo's journey with cancer. If you're familiar with Holiday's book, it is comprised of three hundred and thirty-six 'meditations' from the Stoics, so anyone from Epictetus to Seneca, Aurelius to Zeno. Both books offer lovely, bite-sized pieces of wisdom and I'd like to incorporate more of both Nepo and Holiday's musings into these blog posts going forward.
For this week, and in yet another serendipitous event, I headed straight for November 16 in The Book of Awakening (The Moment of Dawn) and I found that it was exactly what I needed this week. This will be a brief post.
"It is essential to realize and embrace the paradox that while no one can go through your journey for you, you are not alone. Everyone is on the same journey. Everyone shares the same pains, the same confusions, the same fears, which if put out between us, lose their edges and so cut us less."
To reiterate, The Book of Awakening serves as a daily guide for deeper living, featuring brief, poetic reflections for each day of the year. It combines elements of spirituality, psychology, and personal narratives to assist readers in reconnecting with themselves and their surroundings.
In essence, the message of Nepo's book is that life constantly presents us with opportunities to awaken, whether it be through joy, pain, loss, love, nature, or silence. By approaching our experiences with openness instead of resistance, we embrace the entirety of being alive.
I like the way that the author structures the daily entries. He begins each 'chapter' with a title (The Moment of Dawn in this instance) and a quote, which can be his own or from other, well-known sources (Rumi in this case, as below). He then writes a short story and/or reflection, offers insight and then suggests a meditation or practice at the end of the daily entry. It's lovely and something nice to either begin or end your day with.
In The Moment of Dawn, Nepo references a story from the Talmud, where a Rabbi poses the following question to his students: "How do you know the first moment of dawn has arrived?"
After several failed attempts at an answer, the Rabbi answers his own question with:
"You know the first moment of dawn has arrived when you look into the eyes of another human being and see yourself."
I messaged my nephew, Jody about the phenomal book I mentioned at the beginning of this post. "I sound like a stuck record, hey?", I wrote to him. He wisely responded with, "when it's good, it's good, what else can you say?"
I was born into a family that loved each other, not just in an automatic, perfunctory way but in a demonstrative way where it's often said and expressed in hugs, wishes, exchanges, shared interests, mutual inspiration and even gentle teasing. The love of my immediate family multiplied with the births of my nieces, nephews and great niece. Jody was born when I was seventeen, so I was a relatively young Aunty. He came into the world at the onset of a Southern Hemisphere spring, and altered the very meaning of love for me. I took one look at the beautiful, tiny, dark-haired baby boy in my arms that first day and my perception of love changed. That automatic love with my existing family was such because I was born into that atmosphere, so love was already there. But until the age of seventeen, I didn't know what it would be like to love a whole new person. It starts in your chest. You look down at this brand new human, so sweet and perfect and it feels like your heart swells. I think that part was automatic, like most physiological responses are, but there was considered thought then too. I remember thinking that I was going to love this little baby until my dying day. It was all-encompassing and overwhelming and his birth brought meaning to my life in a way that I do not take for granted.
Jody's a grown man now, a father. He has a gentle but determined spirit, and over the years, our bond has only grown. We've always been close but over the last few weeks particularly, I have connected with my first-born nephew in a wonderful way. I think that, with love, comes a deep hope that the recipient of that love knows only the best that life can offer and we'd do almost anything we can to protect them. Unfortunately, that's not how life works and despite every effort, we have to allow, even those who make our hearts swell with love, to tread their own path.
Jody's on a journey of his own, and that's a story for him to tell if he wants to tell it. But this newfound connection is rooted in some shared experiences and a deep-seated yearning for change, for something else, for growth. I look into his eyes, and I see myself. We're in touch almost every day. I saw him yesterday, and with every opportunity, we try to lift each other. He has inspired me, and he makes me want to do better. So, yes, we all journey alone but also together, and with him, I think perhaps that moment of dawn has arrived.
I'd like to end this post with the Rumi quote that Mark Nepo uses in his November 16 post because it ties into that phenomenal book that I have mentioned three times in a post that I insisted was not about said book. This sun, that Rumi talks about... the companion... it appears in that phenomenal book too. The phrasing is different but that commonality has reared its head again and it's clear to see that Rumi is talking about the very thing I cannot wait to write about.
"There's a sun in every person - the you we call companion." (Rumi)
Random Quote
"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." (Seneca)
#anxiety #depression #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #mindfulness #selfhelp #selfcare #wellness #youarenotalone #thereisnostigma #mindsetmatters
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