There is Only One Life You Can Call Your Own

Last month I spent a week on a walking tour in the Northern Lakes District of England with poet, David Whyte. In community with 21 others, I experienced the pastures and mountains, villages, locals, cuisine, pubs and sheep (lots of sheep) of the region.  The treks were challenging; so is life. No matter your age, title, or size of your bank account, cresting the top of the lowest moor would not come easily.

David is an extraordinary teacher. Every morning was spent discovering parts of the journey of living with poetry opening up new language for exploration.

My posts in the future will more fully describe the experience so that you, too, may thoughtfully navigate your journey of work and life.

You’ll meet some interesting people on sabbatical, as well. After listening to her sabbatical goals, yourSABBATICAL advised Catherine, CEO of a non-profit in Columbia, SC,  to become part of this group and to attend the TED conference in the UK during her 4-week paid sabbatical. She did both. We’ll be hearing from her as well as Paul and Amy’s WOOFING experience (World Wide Opportunity on Organic Farms) in Italy and a video interview with a woman from Turkey who just completed a route on Camino de Santiago (pilgrimage of 36 days walking.)

All in the future.

But on this Friday, here’s one of David’s poems to set your thoughts in motion.

All the True Vows
by David Whyte

All the true vows
are secret vows
the ones we speak out loud
are the ones we break.

There is only one life
you can call your own
and a thousand others
you can call by any name you want.

Hold to the truth you make
every day with your own body,
don’t turn your face away.

Hold to your own truth
at the center of the image
you were born with.

Those who do not understand
their destiny will never understand
the friends they have made
nor the work they have chosen

nor the one life that waits
beyond all the others.

By the lake in the wood
in the shadows
you can
whisper that truth
to the quiet reflection
you see in the water.

Whatever you hear from
the water, remember,

it wants you to carry
the sound of its truth on your lips.

Remember,
in this place
no one can hear you

and out of the silence
you can make a promise
it will kill you to break,

that way you’ll find
what is real and what is not.

I know what I am saying.
Time almost forsook me
and I looked again.

Seeing my reflection
I broke a promise
and spoke
for the first time
after all these years

in my own voice,

before it was too late
to turn my face again.

“All the True Vows” from The House of Belonging by David Whyte.  Copyright © 1997, 2004 by David Whyte.  Many Rivers Press (www.davidwhyte.com)

David Whyte grew up in Yorkshire, England. He studied Marine Zoology in Wales and trained as a naturalist in the Galapagos Islands. He has also worked as a naturalist guide, leading anthropological and natural history expeditions in various parts of the world, including treks among the mountains of Nepal.

Whyte’s poetry reflects a living spirituality and a deep connection to the natural world.

He is one of the few poets to take his perspectives on creativity into the field of organizational development, conducting workshops with many American and international companies.

David Whyte currently lives in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.