So many of our choices can be dictated by the fear that we will be left alone. The truth is that we are never alone if we stand with ourselves. Instead though, we often bail on ourselves chasing the elusive other that we think we need to avoid being alone. It only works when we are true to ourselves first. When we do that, we begin to notice that we can never be alone. All of life is lining up in harmony with us. I love the way this poem my friend Krayna Castlebaum selected as her Poem of the Month makes this point. It’s by the poet David Whyte.
Everything is Waiting for You
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you wer alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array.
the swelling presence and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you.
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.
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