SOMETIMES – David Whyte

Sometimes
if you move carefully
through the forest,

breathing
like the ones
in the old stories,

who could cross
a shimmering bed
of leaves
without a sound,

you come
to a place
whose only task

is to trouble you
with tiny
but frightening
requests,

conceived out of nowhere
but in this place
beginning to lead everywhere.

Requests to stop what
you are doing right now,
and

to stop what you
are becoming
while you do it,

questions
that can make
or unmake
a life,

questions
that have patiently
waited for you,

questions
that have no right
to go away.

SOMETIMES
From ‘Everything Is Waiting for You’
and ‘River Flow: New and Selected Poems’
© David Whyte and Many Rivers Press

Opening reflection chosen and read by Nancy L.

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I was struck by the St. Francis prayer – I had just been thinking how cold it was and how good the sun felt as I walked along – marveling how some flowers were browned and dead from the cold yet others close by on the same tree were alive and vibrant.

The Song of the Creatures
By St. Francis of Assisi
1182-1226

Praise Be My Lord God With All His Creatures
And especially our brother the sun
Who brings us the day and who brings us the light.
Fair is he and shines with very great splendor
O Lord he signifies to us Thee.

Photos and reflection by Bonnie L.

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Photos by Sue J.

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The opening poem invited me off the paths at Brookgreen — I began my walk on brown, winter grass under stately old oaks. I paused — face into the sun — to take in the serenity of these old, sacred grounds. I sought and found serenity on this day. My attention soon turned to the vast diversity of life in this special place — creation’s paradise. This diversity spoke to me as beauty, God-given, necessary and magnificent! Oh how can the human race better understand the blessing and grace of diversity? 

Photos and reflection by Nancy L.

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