We are more real in our simple wish to find a way, more than any destination we could ever reach. It seemed too wild and impossible but oh boy, did I want this deep in my bones. Strangely, I didn’t write this down as one of my intentions for the year (but I did write down ‘join a drumming circle’). ![]() As I was writing my yearly list ritual, I had this very clear thought that I wanted to “meet David Whyte”. Then I ‘met’ David Whyte without actually going anywhere.Īt the beginning of 2020, I lived in New Mexico in an intentional community. ![]() I tried for many years to attend one of David’s workshops in person when I travelled extensively for work but it never lined up. Therefore, at any time of life, follow your own questions don’t mistake other people’s questions for your own. And to experience things first-hand, I have gone on many solo travels to places like Japan, Indonesia, Denmark (I had to visit Kierkegaard), Canada and the United States many times over. I have been apprenticing myself to a word each year for some time now (current word: trusting). As Zora Neale Hurston wrote, ‘There are years that ask questions, and years that answer them.’ I am very versed in the former. ![]() Most of my life has been a series of pilgrimages and quests to answer questions. David’s words remind you that even in your deepest loneliness you are not alone. I really resonate with his entire oeuvre of work and gravitate towards his topics on courage, friendship, longing, and embracing the unknown as an edge that is beckoning us all. There is no house like the house of belonging. This is the temple of my adult aloneness and I belong to that aloneness as I belong to my life. My enduring favourite is The House of Belonging. There is of course his lauded TED Talk on A lyrical bridge between past, present and future (repeating lines is a poetic convention) or you could just pop on David reading his poem Sweet Darkness to you (the last sentence is my life mantra – anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you). If you want something short, try this mediative story on how We Become The Places We Love – you won’t hear a more soothing voice today. You can start with his popular conversation on The Conversational Nature of Reality with On Being’s Krista Tippett (which he says is ‘his chief theme’, in his own words). I recently dug up an old notebook to find one of the first things I wrote down from David Whyte – it comes from his poem Self Portrait: ‘I want to know if you know how to melt into the fierce heart of living, falling toward the centre of your longing.’ Audible wow. ![]() David is a modern-day philosopher and his book, The Three Marriages (about how work, self and relationships are our three core commitments) was in our treasure trove bookstore and his poetry peppered throughout the classes teaching emotional intelligence and life skills to adults. I first came across the Irish-Yorkshireman poet and author David Whyte in 2014 when I launched The School of Life pop-up in Perth. Beautiful questions that have enlarged my life. Courageous and refreshing, like throwing your face up to the wind and breathing in the breeze for a sweet moment. Or as he calls them – invitational questions. Of all the things I love about David Whyte (and there are many, see below), I am most fond of the way he asks questions. I quote David Whyte more than David Whyte quotes David Whyte. I was so happy just to be with you, I would have said anything at all
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