Days 26 27 Our Temple

The House of Belonging

I awoke
this morning
in the gold light
turning this way
and that

thinking for
a moment
it was one
day
like any other.

But
the veil had gone
from my
darkened heart
and
I thought

it must have been the quiet
candlelight
that filled my room,

it must have been
the first
easy rhythm
with which I breathed
myself to sleep,

it must have been
the prayer I said
speaking to the otherness
of the night.

And
I thought
this is the good day
you could
meet your love,

this is the black day
someone close
to you could die.

This is the day
you realize
how easily the thread
is broken
between this world
and the next

and I found myself
sitting up
in the quiet pathway
of light,

the tawny
close grained cedar
burning round
me like fire
and all the angels of this housely
heaven ascending
through the first
roof of light
the sun has made.

This is the bright home
in which I live,
this is where
I ask
my friends
to come,
this is where I want
to love all the things
it has taken me so long
to learn to love.

This is the temple
of my adult aloneness
and I belong
to that aloneness
as I belong to my life.

There is no house
like the house of belonging.

– David Whyte

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel
Watercolor by ~liz

Published by

swiftlyunabashed93c6d9b23b

Categories: Reflections, Holidays, Spirituality

Tags: David Whyte, Erie Chapman Foundation, Journal of Sacred Work, Liz sorensen Wessel

9 responses to “Days 26 27 Our Temple”

~liz Wessel

January 26, 2019 at 9:16 am

In an interview with Krista Tippet and David Whyte they offer up the intrigue of a beautiful question.
Krista notes that a beautiful question can bring out the beauty in another person.
In these turbulent times there is a great deal of strife and divisiveness that prevents truly seeing one another as human.
Perhaps when we show our vulnerability, defensiveness begins to fall so that a real conversation can begin that may not be about solving a problem.
Whyte expands further by saying… the 1st step in having a deeper conversation is to stop having the conversation you are having now…
Whyte shares that in the west of Ireland there is an ancient dynamic in conversations that is mindful of the invisible. Wherever the basis of a conversation begins, if you can completely subvert and take it to another place…you were successful… understanding too that humor is really a spiritual practice.
Question for reflection: As you read this poem by David Whyte, is there a beautiful question that arises within you?
Wishing you a peace filled w/e.

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Julie

January 26, 2019 at 9:29 am

Lovely

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Maureen McDermott

January 26, 2019 at 2:10 pm

To belong is a gift. To gift others with a sense of belonging is a blessing. To embrace one and all with welcome creates peace and joy. Thank you Liz and David.

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Terry Chapman

January 27, 2019 at 3:48 am

Thanks to you Liz, and David Whyte whom I am familiar with! Challenging and yet reassuring, I ask myself the basic questions: who am I? What are my thoughts upon awakening to each new day given to me like a gift from the night?
This continuing conversation with myself goes on year after year as I face and sometimes conquer my deepest concerns and experience al my greatest joys! So yes, these two questions are beautifully intertwined forever and by belonging to my family and friends I will always be moving in the right direction!

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Liz Wessel

January 27, 2019 at 6:51 pm

Thanks for your lovely presence and continued companionship with us! It means a great deal!

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~liz Wessel

January 27, 2019 at 6:54 pm

I am grateful for the sense of belonging and blessings received through this loving community. Thank you, Maureen!

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~liz Wessel

January 27, 2019 at 6:56 pm

Thank you Terry for being willing and open to turns towards the deeper questions that give meaning to our lives.

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erie chapman

January 27, 2019 at 8:45 pm

Thank you not only for your lovely and welcome art (one of my favorites) but also for your follow up reflection., Liz. I not only know Whyte personally but have had the joy of meeting and talking with him twice and he was kind enough to offer a marvelous endorsement for my first book, Radical Loving Care. Although I have House of Belonging I had forgotten his coda:
“belong
to that aloneness
as I belong to my life.
There is no house
like the house of belonging.”
Yes. These are turbulent times. Yet every age has its turbulence and in the middle of that the Chinese slogan “we live in interesting times” almost seems trite. Still, you are right because the country has never been divided by so little. It was one thing for the country to be divided over out Revolution, the Civil War, the Vietnam War, or Civil Rights. But to be divided by an argument over a “divider” (Trump’s wall) must mean that our President is seeking to divert attention from the criminal behavior that both he and staff and former staff have engaged in (43 have now been indicted and 7 convicted.)
But, as with Vietnam – an increasingly clear mistake as we enter the 1970s – the country remains divided with some still standing up for a President whose best pal literally mimicked Nixon’s victory sign in an effort to align himself with a previously disgraced President.
And with all that, I share the loneliness from which so many suffer and, amid that, find Whyte’s appeal that we “belong/ that aloneness” very comforting.
Than you

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~liz Wessel

January 28, 2019 at 10:15 pm

Thank you for your thoughtful and insightful response, Erie. I appreciate all that you have shared as well as your acknowledgement of feelings of loneliness which is part of our human condition. Blessing be upon thee…
~liz

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