My conversation with author Ellie Roscher about her most recent book 12 Tiny Things: Simple Ways to Live a More Intensional Life was so much fun, I hope you check it out. The whole time I was reading the book I kept thinking of the poem Start Close In by the poet and philosopher David Whyte. The opening line begins “start in close/don’t take the second step/or the third,/start with the first/thing/close in.” A line that begs simplicity as an act of remaining grounded in one’s truest self, a self created in love by God. I am sharing the full poem for the start of the year, for the commitment to simplicity and for listening to the simplicity of your calling.
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.
Start Close In can be found in David Whyte’s collection River Flow: New and Selected Poems. If you enjoyed this poem I made a full color printable PDF version you can print HERE.
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