Another March of writing is coming to an end. Again, I’m changed. At the end of this month, I feel more than ever that I’m just beginning on this writing path. Like you, I have tried to be an observer, a listener, and to dig deep for the messages and stories that I need to say and tell.

Today I enjoyed “Santiago” by David Whyte. It’s interesting that as he recites the poem, he repeats phrases and lines as if to allow the listener to really process the power of the words. I hope you will enjoy a few moments and ponder what this poem has to say to you.

You can listen here.

Here is the text, “Santiago” by David Whyte:

The road seen, then not seen, the hillside

hiding then revealing the way you should take,

the road dropping away from you as if leaving you

to walk on thin air, then catching you, holding you up,

when you thought you would fall,

and the way forward always in the end

the way that you followed, the way that carried you

into your future, that brought you to this place,

no matter that it sometimes took your promise from you,

no matter that it had to break your heart along the way:

the sense of having walked from far inside yourself

out into the revelation, to have risked yourself

for something that seemed to stand both inside you

and far beyond you, that called you back

to the only road in the end you could follow, walking

as you did, in your rags of love and speaking in the voice

that by night became a prayer for safe arrival,

so that one day you realized that what you wanted

had already happened long ago and in the dwelling place

you had lived in before you began,

and that every step along the way, you had carried

the heart and the mind and the promise

that first set you off and drew you on and that you were

more marvelous in your simple wish to find a way

than the gilded roofs of any destination you could reach:

as if, all along, you had thought the end point might be a city

with golden towers, and cheering crowds,

and turning the corner at what you thought was the end

of the road, you found just a simple reflection,

and a clear revelation beneath the face looking back

and beneath it another invitation, all in one glimpse:

like a person and a place you had sought forever,

like a broad field of freedom that beckoned you beyond;

like another life, and the road still stretching on.

This text was copied from: http://www.pauljhowell.com/poetry-1/santiago-david-whyte/2015/12/24

Following a path of writing, of introspection, of learning has become so important to me and I have come to deeply appreciate this TWO WRITING TEACHERS community for the gift of a place to safely enter the “broad field of freedom” that beckons us to share with each other and find our best selves.

Blessings to all.