on the edge
by: annette diamantopoulos
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time and time again, this path becomes the way.
confirmed beneath my feet,
affirmed in how i feel;
returned to the infinite edge of knowing - where what i know collapses like a fallen tree returning home.
this is the time to lay down our sticks, to come without defense, to approach the yawning gap in faith - honest and willing to touch the unknown - to step boldly and bravely, rumbling and rambling into what has yet to be born!
we are the potential of it all!
... through our soil and through this 'soul'
- through this intense emotion that rushes through these veins,
through these thoughts, through these words and these actions and these motions that continue to turn the crank that affects the world.
it is here that we meet; on the shore of what we might become - in the light of this sea, this sky, this captain, and this vessel - this purposeful pilgrimage to heal the past and make the future free.
desire swells, 'onward!'
... and the sea carries us and the vessel holds us, and the sky leads us and the captain, as a courageous traveler, calms us - "stays true to a conversation and [does] not attempt to mimic others in order to get on". (Whyte, 48)
... when the wake of other ships disappear,
we are left to guide and steer with our own know'ledge',
rudder cutting into the current below,
unaware of the brewing mutiny of swelling seas crashing beneath cliffs many miles away.
yay! truth brings us home!
and, though the "edge" of judgment's sword feels sharp and scary, there is a knowing - that the ocean will not spill - that we will not fall off the edge of the earth. in the stead of this fear, we will remember who we really really are - we will remember not only with our eyes but with our bodies, our breath ... with spacious sky.
no thought of who i am, i shift from head to heart and again, freedom!
and, "so long as this path is a real conversation with the greater world, [no doubt, eternal faith] will lead us right to the frontier of the presence we desire." (Whyte, 56)
All quotes were taken from David Whyte's Odyssey into purpose called, Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity.