It’s been a long day

~ Live & Learn

The Chinese poet Po Chü-I (772-846) recounts in a poem how he’d traveled so long on horseback that he’d fallen asleep in the saddle. For a moment, his reins had slackened. It seemed like an instant but he’d gone a hundred lengths while asleep. He’d exhausted himself all day; prodding the horse to push on; to go here, then there. But in his sleep, he loosened his grip, gave up control, and the horse, which seemed to wait for this chance, carried him easily. This is the tension between will and surrender. We push and push; insistent on keeping pace with the urgency of our dream. All for the moment that we exhaust ourselves. And letting go the reins, the horse of spirit quickens its pace and carries us on.

~ Mark Nepo, Will and Surrender (Huffpost, Nov 6, 2017)

Notes:

15 thoughts on “It’s been a long day”

  1. If only we could all be sure of having a reliable horse to take over when we take a break. More often, when the person in charge isn’t on top of the game, all hell breaks loose. There you have three clichés in one sentence!

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  2. It’s a beautiful feeling. When we know we did what it takes then leg go the reins. Gravity let’s go of us.

    Then when it’s time the Horse will hand the reins back 😉
    Horses know.

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