Everything is Waiting for You
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
Everything is Waiting for You
2003 Many Rivers Press
What a wonderful insight - 'Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.' I love the idea of a soap dish being enabling, the stairs being a mentor etc. That such ordinary things can be seen as company, portals, epiphanies - is quite a liberating thought.
ReplyDeleteBONNIE
ReplyDeletethis amazing piece of writing and textured image thrill me and inspire me and challenge me and it is all so wonderful. I know the fulfillment of awareness and so too the needed escapes into the imagination. Such is life but a blend of both, yes?
Loving you
Gail
peace.....
nice..some great lines in there by david...the weight of your aloneness...yeah i carried that before...i too like the soap dish and stairs...
ReplyDeleteBonnie this really spoke to me this morning. Isn't it grand how the Universe reaches out in intimacy. Your photo is beautiful and the plant seems to almost reach out tentatively. I love this!
ReplyDeleteCheers!
Julie
Julie Magers Soulen Photography
Sometimes I come here to appreciate your art and skill. Sometimes I come here to see what you've come up with today. Sometimes I come here to simply and hopefully feel better. Today I am three for three! EFH
ReplyDeleteI love this poem. I think it's my lately-favorite of his. It's kind of my back of the mind motto. I've been planning to put it up on my blog too, but I'll wait ('cause I've already procrastinated for so long) and leave lots of distance between our two posts :-)
ReplyDeleteI think it's time to haul the Whyte volume off the shelf and have a cup of tea.
ReplyDelete"Everything is waiting for you." I like the promise of that.
ReplyDeleteSolitary Walker - I like your comments. I agree, very comforting the imagery of ordinary things playing extraordinary roles in our growth.
Thank you Bonnie.
This is such a rich poem. The two lines that resonate most deeply with me are the first and last lines: "Your great mistake is to act the drama as if your were alone," and "Everything is waiting for you." If only we could grasp the truths and act upon them every moment!
ReplyDeleteA poem to be mined for many insights. I especially like the message in "To feel abandoned is to deny / the intimacy of your surroundings". !!
ReplyDelete