“To feel as if you belong is one of the great triumphs of human existence. And especially, to sustain the life of belonging, and to invite others into that, has always been acknowledged as one of the great achievements.”

“But it’s interesting to think that our vulnerabilities, our sense of slight woundedness around not belonging, is actually one of our core competencies. That though the crow is just itself and the stone is just itself and the mountain is just itself, and the cloud, and the sky is just itself, we are the one part of creation that knows what it’s like to live in exile.  The ability to turn your face towards home is one of the great human endeavors and the great human stories.”

“No matter how far you are from yourself, no matter how exiled you feel from your contribution to the rest of the world; as a human being all you have to do is enumerate exactly the way you don’t feel at home in the world, say exactly how you don’t belong, and the moment you’ve uttered the exact dimensionality of your exile, you’re already taking the path back to the way – back to the place – you should be. You’re already on your way home.”

     – David Whyte,
condensed from the video on the previous page

Pearl in February, 1973.
Moments after this photo was taken, this pink-tuxedoed,
14 year-old goober went to pick up his date, a 14 year-old girl
named Pennie, for the Sequoyah Junior High Sweetheart Banquet.