Drinking From the Well…
“One of the most powerful wellsprings of creative energy, outstanding accomplishment, and self-fulfillment seems to be falling in love with something—your dreams, your image of the future.” —Ellis Paul Torrance
Poet David Whyte began his September Zoom Series, A Deeper Form of Rest, with his famous poem The House of Belonging and then wove in wisdom and other poems to point at sources and opportunities for experiencing deep rest.
Reminded of the great work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow states when Whyte spoke about the deep rest we can experience when we’re immersed in an activity, the word “wellspring” flashed into my mind.
It’s as if we’re tapping into an internal wellspring of refreshment or an unseen “home” when we’re so in the flow of some endeavor that we lose track of time and release the tiredness that was weighing us down. Like drinking from a well of cold, clear water on a hot day, our body, mind, and spirit are quickly renewed.
How do we encourage better access to this wellspring? A more contemplative way of living is certainly one way. If we can keep showing up and being just a little bit more attentive to the task in front of us, whatever it may be, we open ourselves up to the possibility of tapping into this Source energy.
“Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times — although such experiences can also be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.” —Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Sometimes the “voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult” isn’t about a grand work challenge but about being attentive to a loved one or a mundane task when our minds are seeking distraction. Obviously, there are times when our bodies truly need rest. Yet, we might help our body, mind, and spirit more than we imagine by giving our undivided attention to what’s in front of us.
May you sense the wellspring within and support it in supporting you with your undivided attention.
A Wellspring Within
“There is a wellspring of life within you where you can go for cleansing and transformation.”
―Deepak Chopra
Look Within
“Look within, for within is the wellspring of virtue, which will not cease flowing, if you cease not from digging.”
―Marcus Auelius
The House of Belonging
I awoke
this morning
in the gold light
turning this way
and that
thinking for
a moment
it was one
day
like any other.
But
the veil had gone
from my
darkened heart
and
I thought
it must have been the quiet
candlelight
that filled my room,
it must have been
the first
easy rhythm
with which I breathed
myself to sleep,
it must have been
the prayer I said
speaking to the otherness
of the night.
And
I thought
this is the good day
you could
meet your love,
this is the black day
someone close
to you could die.
This is the day
you realize
how easily the thread
is broken
between this world
and the next
and I found myself
sitting up
in the quiet pathway
of light,
the tawny
close grained cedar
burning round
me like fire
and all the angels of this housely
heaven ascending
through the first
roof of light
the sun has made.
This is the bright home
in which I live,
this is where
I ask
my friends
to come,
this is where I want
to love all the things
it has taken me so long
to learn to love.
This is the temple
of my adult aloneness
and I belong
to that aloneness
as I belong to my life.
There is no house
like the house of belonging.
—David Whyte, The House of Belonging. You can find out more about David Whyte HERE.
