6 Posts found for Author: David Whyte

The ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a … [ Read more ]

Author: David Whyte | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Psychology | Behavior, Relationships

Whatever a human being desires for themselves will not come about exactly as they first imagined it or first laid it out in their minds… what always happens is the meeting between what you desire from your world and what the world desires of you. It’s this frontier where you overhear yourself and you overhear the world. And that frontier is the only place where … [ Read more ]

Author: David Whyte | Subject: Life & Society

Anger is the deepest form of compassion. The internal living flame of anger always illuminates what we belong to, what we wish to protect and what we are willing to hazard ourselves for.

Author: David Whyte | Subject: Psychology | Behavior

Love may be sanctified and ennobled by its commitment to the unconditional horizon of perfection, but what makes love real in the human world seems to be our moving, struggling conversation with that wanted horizon rather than any possibility of arrival. The hope for, or the declaration of a purely spiritual, unconditional love is more often a coded desire for immunity and safety, an attempt … [ Read more ]

Author: David Whyte | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Concepts, Love

Heartbreak is unpreventable; the natural outcome of caring for people and things over which we have no control. Heartbreak begins the moment we are asked to let go but cannot. […] Heartbreak is how we mature; yet we use the word heartbreak as if it only occurs when things have gone wrong: an unrequited love, a shattered dream. […] But heartbreak may be the very … [ Read more ]

Author: David Whyte | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Pain & Suffering, Personal Improvement

Friendship is a mirror to presence and a testament to forgiveness. Friendship not only helps us see ourselves through another’s eyes, but can be sustained over the years only with someone who has repeatedly forgiven us for our trespasses as we must find it in ourselves to forgive them in turn. A friend knows our difficulties and shadows and remains in sight, a companion to … [ Read more ]

Author: David Whyte | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subject: Relationships