I want to know
if you are prepared to live in a world
with its harsh need
to change you. If you can look back
with firm eyes
saying this is where I stand.
β David Whyte, 'Self-Portrait' [from ππͺπ³π¦ πͺπ― π΅π©π¦ ππ’π³π΅π©]
I want to know if you are prepared to live in a world with its harsh need to change you. If you can look back with firm eyes saying this is where I stand. β David Whyte, 'Self-Portrait' [from ππͺπ³π¦ πͺπ― π΅π©π¦ ππ’π³π΅π©]
SOMETIMES
by David Whyte
Sometimes
if you move carefully
through the forest,
breathing
like the ones
in the old stories,
who could cross
a shimmering bed of leaves
without a sound,
you come to a place
whose only task
is to trouble you
with tiny
but frightening requests,
conceived out of nowhere
but in this place
beginning to lea... See more
Life is fierce and difficult. There is no life we can live without being subject to grief, loss and heartbreak. Half of every conversation is mediated through disappearance. Thus, there is every reason to want to retreat from life, to carry torches that illuminate only our own view, to make enemies of life and of others, to hate what we cannot unde
... See moreDavid Whyte β’ David Whyte
Tilicho Lake by David Whyte
In this high place
it is as simple as this,
Leave everything you know behind.
Step toward the cold surface,
say the old prayer of rough love
and open both arms.
Those who come with empty hands
will stare into the lake astonished,
there, in the cold light
reflecting pure snow,
the true shape of your own face.
Thereβs a poem by Jacque PrΓ©vert that sums up this basic confusion quite well. He wrote: I am what I am I was made like this What more do you want What do you want of me