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 to begin the conversation. 

Start with your own question, 

give up on other people’s questions, 

don’t let them smother something simple.

To hear another’s voice, follow your own voice, 

wait until that voice becomes an intimate private ear 

that can really listen 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: Essentials by David Whyte