Falling Toward the Center of My Longing

Today is Writer's Group.  I started going a few months ago and I find this group has sparked a longing deep inside.  Though I have no idea what will emerge, I know that it offers me the chance to open to each moment.  I listened again to one of my favorite poems by David Whyte, "Self Portrait."  I recognize that I am "prepared to live in the world with its harsh need to change" me.  I want to look back "with firm eyes saying this is where I stand."  This is where I stand!

Self Portrait

It doesn't interest me if there is one God
or many gods.
I want to know if you belong or feel
abandoned.
If you know despair or can see it in others.
I want to know
if you are prepared to live in the world
with its harsh need
to change you. If you can look back
with firm eyes
saying this is where I stand. I want to know
if you know
how to melt into that fierce heat of living
falling toward
the center of your longing. I want to know
if you are willing
to live, day by day, with the consequence of love
and the bitter
unwanted passion of your sure defeat.

I have heard, in that fierce embrace, even
the gods speak of God.

  -- David Whyte
      from Fire in the Earth 
      ©1992 Many Rivers Press