poetry (and quotes)

~000~

Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for an unknown God.

~Henri-Frederic Amiel~

~000~

Blessing for a New Beginning

In out-of-the-way places of the heart, 

Where your thoughts never think to wander, 

This beginning has been quietly forming, 

Waiting until you were ready to emerge. 

For a long time it has watched your desire, 

Feeling the emptiness growing inside you, 

Noticing how you willed yourself on, 

Still unable to leave what you had outgrown. 

It watched you play with the seduction of safety 

And the grey promises that sameness whispered, 

Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent, 

Wondered would you always live like this. 

Then the delight, when your courage kindled, 

And out you stepped onto new ground, 

Your eyes young again with energy and dream, 

A path of plenitude opening before you. 

Though your destination is not yet clear 

You can trust the promise of this opening; 

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning 

That is at one with your life’s desire. 

Awaken your spirit to adventure; 

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk; 

Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,

 For your soul senses the world that awaits you. 

~John O’Donohue~

~000~

Sweet Darkness

When your eyes are tired

the world is tired also. 

When your vision has gone,

no part of the world can find you. 

Time to go into the dark 

where the night has eyes 

to recognize its own. 

 There you can be sure 

you are not beyond love. 

The dark will be your home  

tonight. 

 The night will give you a horizon 

further than you can see. 

 You must learn one thing. 

The world was made to be free in.  

Give up all the 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~

~000~