Weekly Soul. Week 11 - Passions and Desires
Today's meditation from Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living by Dr. Frederic Craigie.
-11-
You get this one life… If you do not have your
deepest desires in sight-- and it’s interesting that the word “desire” comes
from the Old Latin, meaning “of the stars--” if you do not keep your star in
sight, you’re in danger of losing everything that is precious to you, and
living out a life that is like a shell.
David Whyte
Remembering who you are is not an idle or
academic exercise. You get this one life. Your desires are of the stars. Embracing who you are has a sense of urgency, of
eternality.
What do you do that is of the stars? What choices do you make
that align with the desires, the values, and the passions that are sacred for
you?
Certainly, visioning is a part of the process. If your life is about compassion, you look for places where you can embody kindness and generosity. If your life is about curiosity and fascination with the way things work, you explore journalism or research. If your life is about understanding and honoring other people who are coming from different places, you might sign up for the Peace Corps. If your life is about seeing the miracles and partaking of the joy of living, you might volunteer at a national park and spend your days in the natural world or learn to play an instrument and spend your evenings in fellowship with other musicians. The possibilities are endless.
But the urgency and eternality of your
deepest desires can be approached from the other direction, too.
Let me make a case for regret. Regret is
one of those human experiences that can be terribly uncomfortable and
remarkably useful. I regret not having done a foreign semester in college and
missing out on fluency in a second language. I take pride in much of how I have
been as a father, and I also have regrets of opportunities that I allowed to
pass by. I think that I’m generally a pretty nice guy, but I regret times of
impatience and unkindness. I’m part of a dying breed of professionals who have
worked at one job for decades, and I sometimes wonder what it might have been
like to have taken my skills and passions somewhere else.
Looking backward, regret needs a heathy
combination of accountability and self-compassion. The adaptive role of regret—the
energy of regret—lies in looking forward.
What have your shortcomings and failures
taught you about what you need to learn? What do the times when you have been
less than you fully are show you about your “deepest desires?” As you imagine
approaching the end of the line, what will you hope that you will have done? What
might you regret that you had not done?
I hold no illusions that we all can become
anything we want. There are physical limitations—my days of dunking a
basketball are over—and there are social, economic and cultural limitations. Doors
are open for me as an educated white man that are closed for many other people.
But within the circles where we travel, we do have choices about what we’re
going to do and about the qualities of spirit and heart with which we do it.
It’s an urgent and eternal question; what
do you do that is of the stars?
Reflection
- You may recall the last line
from Mary Oliver’s poem, The Summer
Day; “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and
precious life?” (The poem in entirety is posted on the Library of Congress
website, www.loc.gov.) What thoughts does this stimulate?
What ideas form in your mind and heart?
- Notice, in the week to come,
what you do that touches on your deepest desires about who you are. Big
things—how you work on Tuesday on that project that you’re passionate
about—and everyday things—how you reach out on Thursday afternoon to the
little boy next door.
- What do you think you might do
going forward to further honor your deepest desires?
Author
David
Whyte (b. 1955)
is a Yorkshire-born poet, writer, and consultant. His poetry touches on the
essential and often hidden and emerging qualities of soul. He is particularly
noted for his consultation with individuals and teams in corporate settings
such Boeing, AT&T and Toyota, where he invites people to form words to
explore their own understanding of soul and expression of creative leadership. A
dual British and American citizen, he lives in the Pacific Northwest. The
quotation comes from an interview of Whyte on the PBS program, Body & Soul with Gail Harris.
For more posts by and about Fred and his book, click HERE.
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