Sometimes, you need the ocean light,
and colours you've never seen before
painted through an evening sky.
Sometimes you need your God
to be a simple invitation,
not a telling word of wisdom.
Sometimes you need only the first shyness
that comes from being shown things
far beyond your understanding,
so that you can fly and become free
by being still and being still here.
{ . . . }
- David Whyte
from DAVID WHYTE: ESSENTIALS
ABOUT DAVID
David Whyte is an internationally renowned poet and author, and a scintillating and moving speaker. Behind these talents lies a very physical attempt to give voice to the wellsprings of human identity, human striving and, most difficult of all, the possibilities for human happiness.
His talks, to audiences of all persuasions, on everything from literature to leadership, heartbreak to healing; mindfulness to mythology, weave poetry, story and commentary into a moving, almost physical experience of the themes that run through every human life: joy and loss, vulnerability and vitality, courage and despair, beauty and necessary heartbreak. He draws from hundreds of memorized poems, his own and those of other beloved poets such as Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Keats, Pablo Neruda, Fleur Adcock and the sonnets of Shakespeare.
He is the author of ten books of poetry, three books of prose on the transformative nature of work; a widely-acclaimed, best-selling book of essays, and an extensive audio collection.
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MAY ONLINE SERIES
THE POETRY OF SELF COMPASSION: REVEALING WHAT IS HIDDEN AS A GIFT TO OTHERS
MARCH ONLINE SERIES
AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD:
A MYTHOPOETIC TOUR OF THE WEST OF IRELAND
WINTER OFFERINGS: LETTER FROM THE HOUSE
Living Without Enemies:
Refusing to Name as the Essence of Kindness
Outside the kitchen window veils of rain and wind are bringing in the autumn weather from far across the Pacific. On the animated satellite map glowing from my laptop, the earth looks gorgeous, hues of blue and green and corrugated brown appearing and disappearing under spiraling patterns of rain and cloud. Those same great spirals of rain and wind have made their way from the sub tropics of the Philippines, or the Northern islands of Japan, and turned to a white that signifies snow as they cross the Cascade mountains and sweep inland across the American continent. Beneath all this magnificence, it is sobering to think that humankind has decided it might allow itself to be bullied into tiny, dead-end conversations where we are made to turn into one another’s adversaries. Indeed, we have been bullied into bullying one another ...
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