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 of starting
the conversation. 

Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them
smother something
simple. 

To find
another’s voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes a
private ear
listening
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. ~David Whyte, River Flow: New and Selected Poems

I recall my first and last day of training like this: 
first day: petrified with thrilling anticipation and hope for connection. 
last day: flowing, full and free from my dream of understanding voice in an embodied way and connection … oh so fully connected. 
If doing it again, i would come in with ease of knowing that i am coming into a tribe, a work, that understand and values love, ease, agency and creation. you are now a part of that tribe. welcome and i can’t wait to meet you. 

 Much love,

Traci