Eventually we realize that not knowing what to do is just as real and just as useful as knowing what to do. Not knowing stops us from taking false directions. Not knowing what to do, we start to pay real attention. Just as people lost in the wilderness, on a cliff face or in a blizzard pay attention with a kind of acuity that they would not have if they thought they knew where they were. Why? Because for those who are really lost, their life depends on paying real attention. If you think you know where you are, you stop looking. β¨ David Whyte (2009). The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship, p.88, Penguin
More Author Quotes
- Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the conversation. β¨ David Whyte (2009). The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship, p.51, Penguin
- To feel abandoned is to deny the intimacy of your surroundings. β¨ David Whyte (2009). The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship, p.50, Penguin
- Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity. β¨ David Whyte (2009). The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship, p.50, Penguin
- The truth about our own modest contribution might immobilize us: much easier then, to tell ourselves a story about how much we make our own reality.
- The severest test of work today, is not of our strategies, but of our imaginations and identities.
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