The Opening of Eyes by David Whyte

After Sunday's service I had to go back to the video to find the wonderful poems Rev. Heather Clarke shared on Sunday. While I was familiar with Rudyard Kipling's If, and found it perfect for Father's Day I was not familiar with the work of David Whyte.

Enjoy.

The Opening of Eyes

That day I saw beneath dark clouds
the passing light over the water
and I heard the voice of the world speak out,
I knew then, as I had before
life is no passing memory of what has been
nor the remaining pages in a great book
waiting to be read.

It is the opening of eyes long closed.
seen for the silence they hold.
It is the heart after years
of secret conversing
speaking out loud in the clear air.
It is the vision of far off things

It is Moses in the desert
fallen to his knees before the lit bush.
It is the man throwing away his shoes
as if to enter heaven
and finding himself astonished,
opened at last,
fallen in love with solid ground. 

-- David Whyte

ONCE UPON A LIFETIME

To my spiritual family...

There is no closing door that can refuse Life nothing that can staunch Its movement.

It has forever been a river whose origin is Divine and it flows inexorably back to that Ocean.

Once upon a lifetime I believed I could hold each moment as an exquisite jewel, that the Universe was no longer expanding, and I expounded as a child, without vision or clarity.

I swam against the tides and waves and currents until, exhausted, my battered soul washed up on the shore of this blessed place and here I saw the face of Peace.

Even then did I still clutch at the smoke and sand that was my warped remembering.

I held in my hand the priceless pearl with only the merest glimmering of recognition.

Something pulled my consciousness and pushed me to pursue the connection between thought and that which is thought of; in that process I discovered Love.

This was, and continues to be an unfoldment that has no real beginning, and it is the thread of an infinite tapestry that has no borders.

As it unfurls, my world grows ever greater.

Every corner turned is an adventure for me now.

I sail through storms and float in waking dreams knowing that all uncertainty is spoken for by the Mind and Power that has gifted me with life.

Now do I see that wall, once formidable and tall is an ever-opening portal to the real Thing, and every answer I seek, when found, begs another question, forever and ever.

My realization is that explanations explain nothing and that the voyage to knowledge and wisdom is endless, that the impermanence of human life makes it all the sweeter.

And the only thing of true import in this temporality is Love Itself.

And here I have found that Love in forms and ideas, in people, and in the inspired doing that is music.

It is the compassion and caring that carries all lovers through.

It is the force of creation that makes all things new.

This is my home; this the well from which I draw that which quenches me.

This is my family; you are the ones who lift me from my darkness.

And these are they who gently hold my love, that I will not fly away.

God is here, and all of you are His face and Her grace.

-Written by Rick Dale, Singer/Songwriter/Poet