Read these weekly reflections on The Huffington Post and VividLife.

In November, Sounds True will publish a new, expanded edition of Inside the Miracle: Enduring Suffering, Approaching Wholeness, which gathers twenty-eight years of my writing and teaching about suffering, healing, and wholeness, including thirty-nine new poems and prose pieces not yet published.

One of the great transforming passages in my life was having cancer in my mid-thirties. This experience unraveled the way I see the world and made me a student of all spiritual paths. With a steadfast belief in our aliveness, I hope what’s in this book will help you meet the transformation that waits in however you’re being forged.

The following piece is an excerpt from the book.

Moonglow

The moon on the frozen elm

was a lick of eternity that said, You

will go soon enough. Linger with

me. And so I did. I stood there

till the cold crept into my boots

and the moon spilled up my face.

The thin blue shadows on the

snow were so bright it seemed

a day had stayed on to tame the

darkness from getting darker.

Then a sacred space opened

that I can’t quite explain.

A Question to Walk With: In conversation with a friend or loved one, tell the story of a time when life made you stop and linger. Once you stopped, what did life have to say to you?