Self Portrait

It doesn’t interest me if there is one God

or many gods.

I want to know if you belong or feel

abandoned.

If you know despair or can see it in others.

I want to know

if you are prepared to live in the world

with its harsh need

to change you. If you can look back

with firm eyes

saying this is where I stand. I want to know

if you know

how to melt into that fierce heat of living

falling toward

the center of your longing. I want to know

if you are willing

to live, day by day, with the consequence of love

and the bitter

unwanted passion of your sure defeat.

I have heard, in that fierce embrace, even

the gods speak of God.  - David Whyte

When I first read this poem, years ago… I read it again and again.  It was so beautiful to me.   It addressed the paradox of  life I could not put words to at the time.

I was discovering, that to fully live was to surrender to love over and over again even though the law of impermanence reigns, no matter what. 

That to love life and all of it’s glory, you must gaze at the truth of immortality and loss.

Paradox:

Life = death.

Some say that in order to really live you have to die a thousand tiny deaths.

The project… each time I witness the power of another’s “becoming”, as the team documents the death of her illusions of self through the lens is truly one of the most beautiful life-giving things I have ever witnessed.

TRP is not a photo shoot.  It is an exercise about gazing into the eyes of truth, and letting truth stare back at you. It’s about showing you how to:

“melt into that fierce heat of living falling toward the center of your longing.”

It’s about

“looking back with firm eyes” and knowing where you stand, and knowing the “consequence” of loving yourself and others.

What does that mean- consequence?  What a strange word he should use.

It’s perfect.

Yes… to love and fully live has it’s consequences- doesn’t it

Surely then you can no longer protect your vulnerable heart-  because to love is to lose, to belly laugh with joy is to weep with sadness, to live is to die.

We cannot escape any of it.

So you might as well LIVE, and know the truth.