thunder, storytelling, and endurance

It is a very overcast morning here, the thunder was ominous last night and kept me company for some time.  I picked up Experiencing Spirituality (Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham), which has captured my attention.  I love the idea of the story singing that which dogma cannot.  I'd been thinking of and about the power of storytelling recently, it was a good thing to stumble upon this book.  One of my favorite stories so far:


I recently heard a story of someone asking a monk, "What is your life as a monk?"
The monk replied, "We walk, we fall down, someone helps us up.  We walk some more, someone else falls down.  We help them up.  That's pretty much what we do."


It seems to call to mind the elimination of destination as the end.  Rather, as the authors make note of (almost apologetically), it is the essence of "be-ing."  It also calls to mind the power of service to our fellows, and gives us permission to accept help when we need it.