On now

The collective trauma summit runs until October 6, 2022. See the full schedule, talks, music, poetry and more here>

David Whyte

As a taster watch> Thomas Hübl introduce David Whyte and

The Bell and the Blackbird

The sound of a bell
Still reverberating,
or a blackbird calling
from a corner of the field,
asking you to wake
into this life,
or inviting you deeper
into the one that waits.

Either way
takes courage,
either way wants you
to be nothing
but that self that
is no self at all,
wants you to walk
to the place
where you find
you already know
how to give
every last thing
away.

The approach
that is also
the meeting
itself,
meeting
at all.

That radiance
you have always
carried with you
as you walk
both alone
and completely
accompanied
in friendship
by every corner
of the world
crying
Allelujah.

Of course when you hear that line “that radiance you have always carried with you,” many times you say “What radiance? Where is that radiance?” 

And certainly, it’s the experience of the world that life is difficult What lies beneath the trouble is one of the themes I’ve been working with this year—the way we’re constantly troubled as human beings.

But it’s almost always the next dispensation of our life which is knocking on our door. And we’re troubled because we actually don’t know how to hold it, how to make ourselves large enough for the understanding.

And I think part of, you know, I think part of the worldwide work on trauma is part of enlarging our understanding of ourselves to hold both joy and difficulty at the same time.

To hold our troubles, the way we’ve  been hurt or violated by life, the way our identity has been broken into at times. When, without our consent it seems, yeah.

Watch David and Thomas here>