“Where all of those edges meet, you get an astonishing conversation…an astonishing depth and plethora of life.”-David Whyte

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

 — David Whyte
   from Everything is Waiting for You
   ©2003 Many Rivers Press

“How many edges and conversations are actually meeting inside of me?”

• It’s all there. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Is your life an infinitely-edged “sword?” You can try to fight the facets that you think are wrong, but wow, infinitely edged? You can’t win that one. Surrender. Maybe instead, see the sword as an infinitely faceted crystal.

“Everything, no matter how you are, where you stand, is being affected by the way you stand.”

• How do you stand? Behind your wall, your identity, your ego-you? Come out and meet life. Start a conversation. Make friends…everything is waiting and your experience of every thing depends on how you frame up the thing.

“I don’t have to take the world on as a burden or a weight…I just have to turn to face towards what is actually calling me, what I am surrounded by.”

“Am I a monoculture idea which I attempt to project onto reality?”

• Do you project your limits and definitions onto life? It will not comply. Do people project their definitions and limits onto you? You will not comply. Can we find a third frontier…a balance, a merging of individual and collective identity?

“The world can be changed by your attentive presence.”
“This is one of the necessary disciplines of our time.”

• Are you present in your life? Are you a player? Or, are you the ref, coach, announcer, and maybe even a crazy fan trying to control the outcomes? Get in the game.

—

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