What we are actually about to become or are afraid of becoming always trumps and rules over what we think we are already. - David Whyte

Ambition left to itself, like a Rupert Murdoch, always becomes tedious, its only object the creation of larger and larger empires of control; but a true vocation calls us out beyond ourselves; breaks our heart in the process and then humbles, simplifies and enlightens us about the hidden, core nature of the work that enticed us in the first place. We find that all along, we had what we needed from the beginning and that in the end we have returned to its essence, an essence we could not understand until we had undertaken the journey.

Only those who put more energy into self-pity than into paying attention are truly marooned.

There is a faith in loving fiercely
the one who is rightfully yours,
especially if you have
waited years and especially
if part of you never believed
you could deserve this
loved and beckoning hand
held out to you this way.

I am thinking of faith now
and the testaments of loneliness
and what we feel we are
worthy of in this world. — David Whyte, from “The Truelove,” The Sea In You: Twenty Poems of Requited and Unrequited Love (Many Rivers Press, 2016)