Category Archives: writers

Issue 11: Mark Nepo ~ As Far As the Heart Can See

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I am thrilled to present this month’s Heart to Heart interview featuring Mark Nepo, a poet, philosopher and New York Times #1 bestselling author.  I have followed Mark’s work for many years and consider The Book of Awakening to be essential reading. (If you don’t own this book, go here right now and order it!)  It was an honor to hear a few of his personal stories, and understand some of the influences that have molded him into the wise and thoughtful man he is today.

In 2010, Oprah chose The Book of Awakening as one of her ultimate favorite things.  “Mark Nepo is a poet,” Oprah says. “He’s an author and a philosopher and has been through two different cancers. So when he writes, he writes purely from the heart.”

I’m a huge fan of Mark’s work and am delighted to share this conversation with you.  In this interview, Mark and I talk about:

  • How we can prepare for our hearts to be opened
  • How we move forward when the life we once knew is gone
  • How we sometimes stunt our own growth
  • Why we need each other
  • And who he reads for inspiration

All this and more are included in this month’s Heart to Heart with Mark Nepo.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on our conversation.  Please leave a comment below.

All love,

Mindie

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Featured Heart to Heart Interview:

Mark Nepo

Mark Nepo

Click here to listen:  (48:04) 




I hope you enjoyed listening to my conversation with Mark Nepo. Visit Mark’s website for more information on his work, or sign-up to receive weekly insights from Mark at ThreeIntentions.com.

Mark’s Bio:

Mark Nepo has published thirteen books and recorded eight audio projects. Recent work includes a new book of teaching stories, As Far As the Heart Can See, and audio books of The Book of Awakening and Finding Inner Courage. As a cancer survivor, Mark devotes his writing and teaching to the journey of inner transformation and the life of relationship.

His work has been translated into twenty languages including French, Portuguese, Japanese, and Danish. In leading spiritual retreats, in working with healing and medical communities, and in his teaching as a poet, Mark’s work is widely accessible and used by many.

FacebookLike Restart Your Heart on Facebook! Post a comment on the wall and tell me know who you’d like to hear from in future Heart to Heart interviews.

Restart Your Heart…

Because Love is Worth the Risk

Discovering Who You Really Are

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Howard FalcoI recently chatted with Howard Falco, author of I AM: The Power of Discovering Who You Really Are for Examiner.com.

Click here to listen to our 15-minute convo: 


I asked him what the impetus was to write down his experience.  After all, it’s quite a process to write a book and follow through with editing and publication.  I was inspired by what he said:

“The impetus was the sheer grace, the sheer humility of what happened, and the deep desire to want to honor this grace.  To this day, I am humbled beyond words by the nature, the breadth and the depth of the information.  So, my greatest gift back to the universe for opening the door for me on this is to share it.”

I AM by Howard FalcoThis is how he summed up his message:

The essence of the message is that the unbelievable, beautiful, perfect, creative power of the universe is within you.  As you come to realize this more and more, you become more empowered to create more of a feeling of love, joy and happiness in every relationship you have in your world.  And that there is no one who is more beautifully perfect, right where you are, than you.  We all are, and we’re all working together on this journey of self-awareness.

Many thanks, Howard, for sharing a bit of your journey!

Bird by Bird

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Here’s a short video on breaking down seemingly insurmountable tasks into smaller pieces… taking any project step by step.

And if you haven’t read Bird by Bird, it’s fantastic. I dare say “essential” for writers, but Lamott is so good, anyone can benefit from her insights on life.

Blog Challenge: Best Night Out

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from Gwen Bell’s Best of 2009 Blog Challenge

The Question:  Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world? Who was there? What was the highlight of the night?

There were probably a few nights, now melded in memory, from my last residency at Pacific in June.  There was the uncontrollable laughter–the kind that you’re almost concerned about whether or not you’ll be able to take another breath, but the thought of losing consciousness owing to oxygen shortage makes everything even funnier… the kind that makes your obliques hurt more than they have from abdominal crunches.

When I laugh that hard tears stream down my cheeks.

There was that time when Aaron raised his hand, and we just lost it.  There were homemade brownies.  There was red wine in real wine glasses thanks to Eric.  There was that all night conversation…  To say that that night, or nights, rocked my world, would be vastly understated.

Pictured here with my fiction writing friends, Jason Sandefur and Alissa Nielsen.

Blog Challenge: Best Book

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from Gwen Bell’s Best of 2009 Blog Challenge

The Question: What book – fiction or non – touched you? Where were you when you read it? Have you bought and given away multiple copies?

I’m re-reading Marianne Williamson’s A Return to Love right now and it’s pretty much altering the way I perceive everything — again.  Of course there is the famous quote that is always a good reminder…

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

But there are so many other, equally potent gems scattered throughout the pages.  My copy is already filled with underlines from the first go-around, but I’m finding new ideas on almost every page that somehow resonate with me in a way that is both novel and familiar.

Want to play along? Check out the list here and blog about your favorites for ’09 all through December:
http://www.gwenbell.com/blog/2009/11/30/the-best-of-2009-blog-challenge.html

God and the G-Spot

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One of my favorites by Ellen Bass…

God and the G-Spot

He didn’t want to believe. He wanted to know.

~ Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan’s wife, on why he didn’t believe in God

I want to know too. Belief and disbelief

are a pair of tourists standing on swollen feet

in the Prado–I don’t like it.

I do.–before the Picasso.

Or the tattoo artist with a silver stud

in her full red executive lips,

who, as she inked in the indigo blue, said,

I think the G-spot’s one of those myths

men use to make us feel inferior.

God, the G-spot, falling in love. The earth round

and spinning, the galaxies speeding

in the glib flow of the Hubble expansion.

I’m an East Coast Jew. We all have our opinions.

But it was in the cabin at La Selva Beach

where I gave her the thirty tiny red glass hearts

I’d taken back from my husband when I left.

He’d never believed in them. She, though, scooped

them up like water, let them drip through her fingers

like someone who has so much she can afford to waste.

That’s the day she reached inside me

for something I didn’t think I had.

And like pulling a fat shining trout from the river

she pulled the river out of me. That’s

the way I want to know God.

Red Lilies

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It has been a very long time since I’ve read this poem that I love, Red Lilies, by Richard Speakes.  When I got out the old December 1994 edition of Poetry and reread it, I thought I’d share the beauty…

Red Lilies

by Richard Speakes

For Joan Didion

We tame with explanations any red, provide

meanings into which we dive, the human

foxhole where the mind finds protection.

It’s fabulous out there, and one clump

of red lilies beside the house could be

the bullet that rips through the body of

all those connotations, our symbols,

the stories that make sense of our world.

Red Riding Hood and Christ’s wounds, mother’s

blood,

and the color the sun must be as one’s death

gives sunset its purpose, its passion at closure.

And then, rising, the moon punctuates the sentence

one’s life made, its last word that somehow rhymes

with all the words preceding, love and work

and sex.  One’s death is by nature that moment,

all the meanings folded into the bundle

one carries, tied to a stick of bone,

as one goes forth into eternity.

That exquisite nonsense is the world

the mind makes from the world it didn’t,

with words that are themselves blossoms

of the invisible, the world as we see it.

As a side note, it’s interesting to think that I read this, and loved it, long before I knew of Richard Speakes and Joan Didion.  I was in high school at the time, fancying myself a writer, and here I am today, fifteen years later, having gotten cozy with Didion’s writing last semester, and still loving that poem.

The Little Fox

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My friend and fellow writer Adrianna Buonarroti introduced me to the little fox from Google’s tea house theme.  I am always curious what he is up to.  For instance, in the image below, he’s sitting on his pier with his lantern watching toy boats in the evening.  If you check back an hour later, he’ll be stargazing with his telescope.

The tea house theme for gmail depicts another view, on the opposite side his pagoda.  Sometimes he is picking flowers in his courtyard or as of five minutes ago, he is cooking dinner inside.  Why does this little guy’s activity intrigue me?  Perhaps it is simply another form of procrastination, one more thing to check out before getting down to the business of writing.

tea-house1

Book Release Party Success

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Thanks to everyone who showed up for last Friday’s book release party.  We had such a great time that evening and are glad you could join us.  It’s been an exciting year so far for the co-authors of Wake Up Women.  Here are a couple pics from the party.

Johanna Courtleigh shares her poetry
Mindie Kniss reads from the recent bestseller Wake Up Women

Mindie Kniss reads from the bestseller Wake Up Women