Hold To Your Own Truth

All The True Vows

All the true vows
are secret vows
the ones we speak out loud
are the ones we break.

There is only one life
you can call your own
and a thousand others
you can call by any name you want

Hold to the truth you make
every day with your own body,
don’t turn your face away.

Hold to your own truth 
at the center of the image
you were born with.

Those who do not understand
their destiny will never understand
the friends they have made
nor the work they have chosen

nor the one life that waits
beyond all the others.

By the lake in the wood
in the shadows
you can
whisper that truth
to the quiet reflection
you see in the water.

Whatever you hear from
the water, remember,

it wants you to carry
the sound of its truth on your lips.

Remember,
in this place
no one can hear you

and out of the silence
you can make a promise
it will kill you to break,

that way you’ll find
what is real and what is not.

I know what I am saying.
Time almost forsook me
and I looked again.

Seeing my reflection
I broke a promise
and spoke
for the first time
after all these years

in my own voice

before it was too late
to turn my face again.

~David Whyte~

As with all of David Whyte’s poems, I love reading them again and again, each time finding new meaning in the words.  I never cease to be inspired by this man.  He’s my go-to guy when I’m in need of inspiration  to find my way back to living my truth, the nudge I need for living the life of my dreams.  Often the busyness of everyday life pulls me off course and I don’t take time to listen to my true voice, but rather get swept away by all that is going on around me and the need to cross off items on the day’s to-do list.  Whyte’s poetry reminds me what’s important, and encourages me to leave the well-known and safe territory of my daily life and enter new frontiers where I rediscover the one life I can call my own.  I have found that new frontiers don’t always have to be grand adventures, the edge doesn’t always have to be steep.  For me, picking up a paint brush, dipping it into water colors and allowing myself to create, is a way to rediscover a hidden part of me that wants to be heard.  It’s a new frontier for me and when I enter that frontier as a beginner, which I am,  and with an open mind, no expectations, it takes me into new territory of growth and fulfillment and leads me to the one life that waits beyond all the others.

I hope you enjoy this poem.  I suggest you read it out loud and let the words sink into your heart.