IS IT TIME TO GET TO KNOW THE STRANGER IN YOU?
Photo by Liz Wuerffel
“Be taught now, among the trees and rocks,
how the discarded is woven into shelter,
learn the way things hidden and unspoken
slowly proclaim their voice in the world.
Find that far inward symmetry
to all outward appearances,
apprentice yourself to yourself..."
Getting to know the stranger in yourself could feel like such a lonely prospect. You look around and it seems as if everyone else knows what they are doing and where they are going. Enter a global pandemic and we are all in a place of profound uncertainty together. Of course, this doesn’t mean we are all experiencing it in the same way. Life circumstances and ways of interpreting what is happening create a myriad of experiences.
Normally at this time of the year, if we take time to pause and listen, we hear fall calling us to reflect more deeply. Perhaps this year, with all the external uncertainty we are swimming in, it is time to go inward and get to know the stranger in ourselves; and as we do, to deepen trust in our true self to always be there to guide us.
"...begin to welcome back
all you sent away, be a new annunciation,
find the words you always wanted to say
and stand at the door of the day
and be hospitable, even to the stranger in you.”
Excerpt from "Coleman’s Bed" by David Whyte
