HIGH ALERT

Anything is possible-ness.

The House of Belonging

Mon, 11/25/2013 - 10:59 -- Alex
I just came across this incredibly lovely poem by British poet David Whyte. It's not often that poetry as a written form manages to so perfectly represent how I feel about an aspect of my life. This is one of those times - which has had me reflecting on what my relationship to my home and the times when I rely on it for comfort and healing and also the times when I want to fill it with folks I love.
 
THE HOUSE OF BELONGING
 
David Whyte
 
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.
 
(Painting by Roger Lane)

Comments

Submitted by Leah on

Beautiful!!!

"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 line reminds me of that Rumi poem "The Guest House"

THE GUEST HOUSE

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

-- Jelaluddin Rumi,

    translation by Coleman Barks

http://www.gratefulness.org/poetry/guest_house.htm

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