Get Started

 Getting started with something new and unfamiliar is scary. 

Whenever I consider what to do next, I recall

David Whyte's poem, Start Close In.  

(I'll include it at the end.)

What I take away from the poem

is to listen deeply to your own heart.

Don't let others expectations and assumptions

distort your view or make you feel obligated.

Let it be YOUR next step.

(It doesn't necessarily have to be 

the one you don't want to take, 

it could be the one that scares you the most 

or is the hardest one to pull off.)

What matters is that it belongs to you.

kastilwell

START CLOSE IN

Start close in,

don’t take

the second step

or the third,

start with the first

thing

close in,

the step

you don’t want to take.

Start with

the ground

you know,

the pale ground

beneath your feet,

your own

way to begin

the conversation.

Start with your own

question,

give up on other

people’s questions,

don’t let them

smother something

simple.

To hear

another’s voice,

follow

your own voice,

wait until

that voice

becomes an

intimate

private ear

that can

really listen

to another.

Start right now

take a small step

you can call your own

don’t follow

someone else’s

heroics, be humble

and focused,

start close in,

don’t mistake

that other

for your own.

Start close in,

don’t take

the second step

or the third,

start with the first

thing

close in,

the step

you don’t want to take.

…

START CLOSE IN

in David Whyte: Essentials

Many Rivers Press © David Whyte