SOMETIMES
Sometimes
if you move carefully
through the forest,
breathing
like the ones
in the old stories,
who could cross
a shimmering bed of leaves
without a sound,
you come to a place
whose only task
is to trouble you
with tiny,
but frightening requests,
conceived out of nowhere
but in this place
beginning to lead everywhere.
Requests to stop what
you are doing right now
and
to stop what you
are becoming
while you do it,
questions that can
make or unmake
a life,
questions
that have patiently
waited for you,
questions
that have no right
to go away.
~David Whyte
photo: J.Ascosi
Rolling Ridge Retreat Community
Shenandoah Mountains, June 2017.