One of our favorite living spiritual teachers is Mark Nepo. Mark has written many books including the bestseller, The Book of Awakening. He is also now 74 years old, and has learned many things about the rhythms, blessings, and wisdom that come in the second half of life. That’s his theme in this new work.
As in all of Nepo’s work, meaning, and transformation are at the center. Here, grace also takes center stage. He reflects on the first page: “We each must face living and dying from the inside of the one life we are given. But we can share the journey, which is the purpose of this book.”
The title he’s chosen comes from Chinese folktales and wisdom literature in which “the fifth season is late summer, when the glare is gone and only the color of things as they are can reach us…. Landing here, I no longer want things. I only want moments. In the sun.”
Here, as always, Nepo writes in a way that speaks for all of us. It is with the close attention of the fifth season of life that he looks carefully at what is most important toward the close of a human life.
Thirty-six short chapters offer meditative, multifaith, poetic, and inspirational teachings on topics including Being Receptive, Living a Creative Life, The History of Your True Self, Our Conversation with Death, Keeping Your Oar in the Water, and The Arts of Repair. Many mystics, poets, nature writers, psychologists, and writers are quoted with inspiring and challenging words about aging and meaning.
Each chapter concludes with “Questions to Walk With.” These are short practice suggestions. For example, at the end of a chapter about responding to the suffering of others, Nepo offers these two practices:
“In your journal, describe one or two pathways of heart between you and others. Give the history of how these pathways were discovered, cared for, and how they are being maintained.”
“In conversation with a friend or loved one, tell the story of someone you gave to even though their situation seemed to have no solution. What did the stream of your love feel like? How did your continual giving affect the person you were loving? How did your continual giving affect you?”
This is an important book for befriending life, embracing others, continuing to grow, and staying close to people in the final decades of life. Nepo’s final paragraph is perfect: “Every day is an honor. Every moment a blessing. And it is my prayer, for each of us, that we be fully alive and awake and in love with the world the moment we slip from our bodies to become a glowing part of it all. So that after a lifetime, we can fully blossom.”
