11/05/2023
LET THE SUN INTO YOUR HEART
Be taught now, among the trees and rocks,
how the discarded is woven into shelter,
learn the way things hidden and unspoken
slowly proclaim their voice in the world.
Find that far inward symmetry
to all outward appearances, apprentice
yourself to yourself, begin to welcome back
all you sent away and be a new annunciation,
let the sun into your heart and broaden
your spacious mind, make yourself a door
through which to be hospitable,
even to the stranger in you.
…
Revised Excerpt from ‘Coleman’s Bed’ in 'Essentials'
© David Whyte and Many Rivers Press
…
Deer at Dawn
Photo © David Whyte
Nara, Japan, November 1st 2023..
One of the benefits of changing time zones so radically can be the very early mornings when I find myself out for a long walk to greet the first rays of the sun. Nara park is full of semi-wild deer who have no fear of humankind and whose mating cries echoed through the previous October, Halloween night. Shakespeare liked to pun on the pursuing both the hart and the heart. Here, I found them brought together so well and in those first rays, a beautiful way to let the sun in to the waking heart. DW
