{"id":1035,"date":"2012-03-06T06:00:57","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T11:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/awakeintheworld\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2012-03-05T16:57:07","modified_gmt":"2012-03-05T21:57:07","slug":"a-pilgrim%e2%80%99s-journey-%e2%80%93-david-whyte%e2%80%99s-spiritual-meanderings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2012\/03\/a-pilgrim%e2%80%99s-journey-%e2%80%93-david-whyte%e2%80%99s-spiritual-meanderings.html","title":{"rendered":"A Pilgrim\u2019s Journey \u2013 David Whyte\u2019s Spiritual Meanderings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cSometimes it takes darkness and the sweet<br \/>\nconfinement of your aloneness<br \/>\nto learn<\/p>\n<p>anything or anyone<br \/>\nthat does not bring you alive<\/p>\n<p>is too small for you.\u201d \u2015 David Whyte, <em>The House of Belonging <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Surrounded by the white painted wood of St. Stephen\u2019s Church in Charleston, South Carolina, David Whyte weaved his poetry into an evening of depth and nostalgia for the precious and fleeting moments of life. Whyte, an internationally renowned poet who taught at Oxford and has taken his poetry into corporations for over a decade, works always to take us deeper and draw out reminders of the most evanescent glints of life\u2019s fleeting light.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/%7E\/media\/3C132B37F93248B1896F8087C2C3459F.ashx?w=400&amp;h=300\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/%7E\/media\/3C132B37F93248B1896F8087C2C3459F.ashx?w=400&amp;h=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Poetry keeps you in contact with the edge of life, Whyte says. His latest book is called <em>Pilgrim<\/em>. \u201cThis is probably the most accurate name for a human being,\u201d he says. Inspired by the <em>Camino of Santiago di Compostella<\/em>, a long walking pilgrimage that his inspired seekers to take it through the Pyrenees Mountains since the Middle Ages, <em>Pilgrim <\/em>speaks to our transcient journey through life and how we meet strangers and make friends along the way. It\u2019s often the strangers who love us most, he says poignantly. He uses poetry to put us in a context that enlarges us and draws a tight focus on our beautiful and oh-so-quickly passing moments of life \u2013 a drive on a road with rolling hills, leaving the cold body of a friend at 5 a.m. after a wake, seeing the life line on your daughter\u2019s tiny hand. And in one instant, in those oh-so-personal stories, the individual strikes resounding chords in the universal and almost everyone in the crowd smiles wistfully as the night draws to an end.<\/p>\n<p>The event, hosted by the Sophia Institute filled the location.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bio:<\/strong> Debra Moffitt is author of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Awake-World-Practices-Divinely-Inspired\/dp\/0738727229\">Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life<\/a>. A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she\u2019s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind\/body\/spirit articles, essays and stories appear in publications around the globe and were broadcast by BBC World Services Radio. She has spent over fifteen years practicing meditation, working with dreams and doing spiritual practices. Visit her online at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.awakeintheworld.com\/\">http:\/\/www.awakeintheworld.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cSometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you.\u201d \u2015 David Whyte, The House of Belonging Surrounded by the white painted wood of St. Stephen\u2019s Church in Charleston, South Carolina, David Whyte weaved his poetry into an&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":409,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,10,4,26,125,3],"tags":[346,645,345,646,402,644,643],"class_list":["post-1035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-faith","category-inspiration","category-meditation","category-oneness","category-spiritual-practice","tag-awake-in-the-world","tag-david-whyte","tag-debra-moffitt","tag-pilgrim","tag-sophia-institute","tag-the-camino","tag-the-way-of-sangiago"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - 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