The journey achieves nothing less than new consciousness, sacred partnerships in relationships, work, family, and with spirituality itself.

Even the saintly are not immune. As a young monk, Francis of Assisi harbored a shameful secret that called into question his faith and nearly destroyed him. Only a revelatory moment of extraordinary courage saved Francis from a life of resigned bitterness and oblivion. Like Francis, you can also confront your greatest fears, and poetry can help.

What is the universe telling you? How would you react? Is it time to jump off a bridge? Lie down on a busy highway? Drink the hemlock mixture? Curl into the fetal position and sob into your pillow? Or is it a grand occasion for rebirth, a golden opportunity to change the things in your life that need changing? Are you being punished for your transgressions, or is the world calling you with the good news—Wake up. It’s Now, and it’s time to change! No matter what we’re doing in life or where we are, we all experience many moments like these, occasions that are death knells or joyful invitations. The most important thing is what we do with
them. Poems have a lot of answers.

Then, three months later, he suspends you with pay after you show a film clip from Glengarry Glenross to your drama students and seniors. At your administrative hearing, you’re assured that the school board will fire you at the next meeting if you do not resign.

What would you do?

This talk focuses on how one endures the worst of times and rises above one’s baser instincts to become a better person and employee.

But somehow, I hit no trees. Not only that, I somehow steered us back to the interstate, up an embankment, and onto the highway. I stopped at the next exit and just sat there shaking until my friend woke up beside me, yawned, and asked if it was his turn to drive. As I sat wide awake in the passenger seat for hours, I thought hard about my life, which had indeed passed before my eyes in the trees, and I thought about why I was still alive, and for what purpose.

Like you, and like so many Americans, Ulysses was restless, a serial wanderer and seeker. People who increasingly live separated from the land, in their cars, or in virtual realities can learn valuable lessons from this Greek legend about the importance of home, relationships, and the pursuit of a balanced and grounded core.

Whether they worked on the land or from the sea, a spiritual power emanated from them, from their work. It had something to do with their pacing, their simple, sturdy gracefulness. They were patient people, and reverent, too. Perhaps this last is the most magical component of soulful work.

Whatever we do, it’s important to consider the soulful aspects of our work, the part spirit plays in the work we perform, and the importance of reverence in the tasks we set our hands and hearts to.

Whenever the spirit horse thunders across our interior prairie or rears up on a hilltop before a full moon, we are faced with a transformative moment we’ll never forget.

Perhaps at your job you turn dangerous opposition into beneficial collaborative energy. Perhaps a career change insists on your attention and action. You may meet an opportunity to heal an old family wound.

In whatever situation the spirit horse appears, he or she surely comes, and more than once in each and every lifetime. The key for each one of us is to be willing, and ready to change.