the world was made to be free in.
Give up all other worlds
except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the
sweet
confinement of your aloneness to
learn
anything or anyone that does not
bring you alive
is too small for you.
David Whyte,
poet
“Anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is
too small for you”
What a statement!
I love David Whyte. He makes me think. And feel. And
feel what I’m thinking about… and think about what I’m feeling. Genius.
What this snippet does for me is send me into a lovely
scatter of thoughts and feelings. Even watching myself have that response to
his ideas is fascinating – like a pianist suddenly moving from Beethoven to
Jazz. All of a sudden my nicely organised worldview gets shaken up…and I have
to improvise instead of falling back on what I know to be true.
I find myself interpreting that line as permission to
cut free all experiences and friendships that don’t really serve me.
Then I wonder about the lack of compassion that seems
to imply. What? – am I to discard all old friends that I have grown bigger than?
Seems a bit heartless.
Then I settle back into the notion that sometimes the
recognition that I am bigger (more evolved) than someone or something is
enough. Sometimes I actually need to take ownership of all the work I’ve done these
past 20 years and recognize that others haven’t had the opportunities, the
education, the loving support of wise teachers that I have had. It's easy to
forget that for me. (Rampant Narcissism of course – the rest of the world
should have the same worldview, skills and capability I have apparently.)
But they don’t.
And its good to remind myself that being bigger is
sometimes enough. And when it’s not – when the small mean spiritedness and
egoic bullshit of others is actually diminishing me…its OK to move away.
Sometimes I even do it gracefully.
Onward and upward,
Jo
Here at Keep Evolving we have adopted David Whyte as
our Poet Laureate. Well worth exploring if you’ve not experienced his
astonishing talent.
http://www.davidwhyte.com
