What would
the radiant
sound of
a Red-winged
Blackbird be,
without the
extraordinary
power of your ears?

What would
the pale,
sailing moon
look like
without your
astonishing eyes?

What would your love
even know
what to do
with itself,
without
the ache
you intuit
in inevitable loss?

And who is it
comes to life
in you again
and again,
and every time
as a new miracle,
on the other side
of grief?

And then
there is this:
if you had
not come
into this world
just as you are,
and just in the way
you came,
could anyone
anywhere
ever
have lived your life
in your stead?

And then the question
toward the end
that might be
no end at all,

is there anything
or anyone
you meet
after death
you will
recognize?

No easy answer
to the
really, really beautiful
questions
of life,

they are just
the everyday
hidden invitations
that have always been
made to you,
something beckoning
you to understand
through every day
of your living
and your dying,

no possible
resolution
you could
ever make sense of,
except
to begin every
question
in wonder.

As Meister Eckhart was
at some pains to tell us.

What you seek,
is nowhere to be found
by answering
questions.

God’s full presence
felt
only in the absolute
essence
of absence.                          
                              - David Whyte

PS: Happy to me! Birthday. David Whyte’s words are a gift.