“To know the rapture of life” is how Parker Palmer describes the spiritual Quest. It’s lovely. But I always stumble across the word “know” – because it tends leads us to the brain, rather than to the embodied heart and mind.

I have spent years making lists of all the big and small wonders of life, growing my awareness and gratitude – yet wondering why I still wasn’t feeling all that rapturous.

It is only when I can manage to put that collection of words (and expectations) aside that I come to KNOW anything at all. That kind of “knowing” seeds what I can only describe, at this point, as “rapturous HUMILITY” – unfurling into enlivened curiosity. AND (to my surprise) grief.

Why grief? Because of all that I cannot even begin to fathom: including how to nurture and not lose that curiosity in the face of so much despair. How to convey it and spark it in others. How to truly honor the gift of life so complex, precious and tenuous.