Another David Whyte poem this week, and a long, stretchy one at that! Current circumstances can tempt us to stay inside ourselves; the challenge is to go beyond ourselves (it only needs to be a little way at a time). Refuse that call for too long and we end up beside ourselves.
The road-image of the poem emerges from the poet’s own experience of a physical journey. When have you been faced with the prospect of having to go beyond yourself to move on? What image, picture or part of a physical journey best expresses how that felt for you?
JUST BEYOND YOURSELF
Just beyond
yourself.
It’s where
you need
to be.
Half a step
into
self-forgetting
and the rest
restored
by what
you’ll meet.
There is a road
always beckoning.
When you see
the two sides
of it
closing together
at that far horizon
and deep in
the foundations
of your own
heart
at exactly
the same
time,
that’s how
you know
it’s where
you
have
to go.
That’s how
you know
it’s the road
you
have
to follow.
That’s how
you know
you have
to go.
That’s
how you know.
It’s just beyond
yourself,
and
it’s
where you
need to be.
David Whyte
