How many gifts must failure bring
before I know it as a friend?
How many wounds must sorrow mend
before I learn its praise to sing?
How much triumph through surrender,
how much wealth through losing earned,
how much gold from out the earth
so I understand that under
stands the truest love of all
that makes of every fall a bow?
*
May we learn to bow down low,
Simeon
“[A rabbi] was asked how it could be that God often showed himself to people in the olden days whereas today nobody ever sees him. The rabbi replied: ‘Nowadays, there is no longer anybody who can bow low enough.’”
—C.G. Jung, Man and His Symbols
Suggested Reading
Falling Upward by Richard Rohr
Sometimes we must fall to find the ground that holds us. In Falling Upward, Rohr teaches that spiritual maturity begins when achievement gives way to surrender. Order here to support SEEKER TO SEEKER at no extra cost.
This personal piece reflects on the quiet alchemy of sorrow—how wounds, if listened to, can become teachers rather than scars. It’s a meditation on the kind of falling that deepens us, and the kind of hurt that (when met with reverence) becomes a gateway to grace.