Inquiry Poem : The Mistake

This is the Mark Nepo poem I used as a reflection today in Inquiry following the sangha meetings readings on mistakes and being in the "mud and water."  This piece comes from Surviving Has Made Me Crazy (2001)

The Mistake
Mark Nepo

The wind had been knocked out of me
and doubled over, I looked like I was asking
for something. It was then that someone
passing by offered me something precious,
which I managed to hold briefly before
dropping. And when I dropped it,
it fell into someone else’s hands
and she was grateful.
She called me kind and generous.
She could’t thank me enough.
But it was only a mistake.
I felt compelled to admit
that I had merely dropped
something precious. At this
she put what I had dropped down
and took my face and said, “Don’t
you see? Even dropping what is precious
is a gift.” It made me cry and while
she rocked me, what was precious
rolled toward a bird who fluttered
over it. It finally landed at the feet
of a small child who hugged what was
given, what was dropped, what was a
mistake, what was let go in order to hold
someone lost. The little one just hugged it
and turned to her mother in awe, shouting,
“Look what I found! Look what I found!”