I’ve been reading poet David Whyte’s The House of Belonging. In it is a poem, “It happens to those who live alone”. Which is a grand title for anything right there.
There’s a line in it that is particularly special…
“I have my freedom today because nothing really happened and nobody came to see me.”
This sings for me. The freedom that Whyte refers to lies in the happy acknowledging that nothing and no one needs to happen upon you for you to feel complete. You don’t need more. You are enough right now.
This is, indeed, freedom. When you’re no longer subject to the tyranny of “out there”, and you can rest comfortably in your own skin, little can harm or impede you. You already, and always, have what you need.
We need to practice this sitting in non-happeningness to be able to experience the freedom that comes with it. We need to sit in this still, alone shit when we start to fret that no one has called, or when there’s no little red notification on your Instagram app, or when a day passes without discernible achievement.
I think to do this we need to create our own boundaries: turn off our phones before 9pm, head to a park with a book and no phone, take a flanerie instead of going to the shops…
What else?
