Create a Space for Listening — David Whyte

Lately I’ve been listening a lot to the poet David Whyte. He has a three-week series that he offers. The current one is called Clear Mind Wild Heart.

I sign on because I so much value a space created for poetic heart. I sign on because I both like and need my poetic instincts to be encouraged. I suppose that is all code for liking and needing heart to come alive into words.

In the most recent session, David shares the importance of “creating a space for the listening; listening to hear the music.”

As I hear him, David isn’t talking about always being quiet. In fact, he was encouraging in this recent session doing some things that are new — dance to bring happiness, presence, and joy. Those are paths to listening. Those are paths to the inherent wild that our bodies, our minds, and our bellies both need and wish.

As I hear him, David is talking about knowing the feeling of ideas and words and images that come from within, that source from within, from that deeper listening.

Sweet, right. The busied part of me appreciates this remembering. To dare to listen to what rises from my own belly. To dare to tune to what emanates from my own heart. To dare to focus on what wishes to arise from my brain. We humans, I don’t think we are meant to just collect what others say. We are also meant to trust and cultivate from within that which wishes to be born.

Well, that’s what I hear in some of my listening this morning. From my desk in my home. As I hear the rain trickling on a cloudy Wednesday morning. As I write a few more insights to guide today.