Sometimes everything
has to be
inscribed across
the heavens

so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.

Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that

small, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart.

Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out

someone has written
something new
in the ashes of your life.

You are not leaving
you are arriving.

When the mind is clear
and the surface of the now still,
now swaying water

slaps against
the rolling kayak,

I find myself near darkness,
paddling again to Yellow Island.

Every spring wildflowers
cover the grey rocks.

Every year the sea breeze
ruffles the cold and lovely pearls
hidden in the center of the flowers

as if remembering them
by touch alone.

A calm and lonely, trembling beauty
that frightened me in youth.

Now their loneliness
feels familiar, one small thing
I’ve learned these years,

how to be alone,
and at the edge of aloneness
how to be found by the world.

             – David Whyte
               from The House of Belonging

Revelation must be
   terrible with no time left
to say goodbye.

Imagine that moment
   staring at the still waters
with only the brief tremor

of your body to say
   you are leaving everything
and everyone you know behind.

Being far from home is hard, but you know,
   at least we are exiled together.
When you open your eyes to the world

you are on your own for
   the first time. No one is
even interested in saving you now

and the world steps in
   to test the calm fluidity of your body
from moment to moment

as if it believed you could join
   its vibrant dance
of fire and calmness and final stillness.

As if you were meant to be exactly
   where you are, as if
like the dark branch of a desert river

you could flow on without a speck
   of guilt and everything
everywhere would still be just as it should be.

As if your place in the world mattered
   and the world could
neither speak nor hear the fullness of

its own bitter and beautiful cry
   without the deep well
of your body resonating in the echo.

Knowing that it takes only
   that one, terrible
word to make the circle complete,

revelation must be terrible
   knowing you can
never hide your voice again.

  – David Whyte
      from Fire in the Earth

There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.  

All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten,

will pass to someone else.  

Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.  

It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.  

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.

 So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.

 The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

 It won’t matter where you came from,

or on what side of the tracks you lived, at the end.

 It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.

 Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

 So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

 What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built;

not what you got, but what you gave.

 What will matter is not your success, but your significance.

 What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

 What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage

or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

 What will matter is not your competence, but your character.

 What will matter is not how many people you knew

but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.

 What will matter is not your memories,

but the memories that live in those who loved you.

 What will matter is how long you will be remembered,

by whom and for what.

 Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.

 It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

 Choose to live a life that matters.

Half the night I waste in sighs,

Half in dreams I sorrow after

The delight of early skies;

In a wakeful doze I sorrow

For the hand, the lips, the eyes,

For the meeting of the morrow,

The delight of happy laughter,

The delight of low replies.

‘Tis a morning pure and sweet,

And a dewy splendour falls

On the little flower that clings

To the turrets and the walls;

‘Tis a morning pure and sweet,

And the light and shadow fleet;

Weltanschauung – world view / wide world perception

“Weltanschauung” refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs through which an individual interprets the world and interacts with it

Walking along the path of life,

I became aware of another pair of legs

treading the same weary way,

Another pair of eyes seeing the same dreams I saw,

Another heart loving what I loved,

Another hand in mine,

Sometimes leading, sometimes following,

Another free spirit like me,

Aspiring to fly across unknown realms,

Conquering the very winds,

It is you my friend my guide,

Walking by my side

I spread my dreams at your feet…

Tread softly as you tread on my dreams….