"The Night put its arm around me" David Whyte

I’ve just completed a 3 x day
solo journey in the
magnificent Sahara desert.





Metaphorically,
3 days means ‘a very long time’. The length of time Jonah was in the body of the whale,
Jesus was in the tomb………etc.
A lot can happen in 3 days.








I went to the desert to,
as David Whyte says:



     "Turn towards the invitation to disappear & starve myself of
   the periphery so as to be hungry for the core"

  I went to literally re-treat,
  to stalk my soul,
  to deepen my relationship with uncertainty & the unknown
  & to come face to face with the questions that stalk me at this stage in my life.  
 
                                    The cool sand running in rivulets between my toes
                                    starts to merge each grain of richness with my every cell.
                                    Recognising that we came from the same origins
                                    & will lie side by side for eternity one day.......
                                    The very dunes know me.
                                    There are many horizons for me here
                                    as I allow each step to move towards
                                    the ones it chooses,  or that call.
                                    Joys beckon me over  each sensual ridge
                                    and losses lie waiting in each smooth bowl.
                                    I die, & am resucitated over & over again
                                    as the silence breaks me apart
                                    then tenderly builds me again,
                                    with a new name.


   "Wayfarer, there is no way. You make the path by walking,
   then looking back
   you see the way your feet will never tread again"
                                                                                  Antonio Machado.
                                    
 



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