David Whyte on Courage as a Measure of Our Heartfelt Participation with Life

Enjoy this deep-dive with TED speaker, philosopher and acclaimed poet David Whyte on what he calls the conversational nature of reality’

Greetings Fellow Curious Humans 👋

This is a slight deviation from the regular Curious Humans broadcasting, but I wanted to share the latest podcast conversation with the TED speaker, philosopher and acclaimed poet David Whyte.

There are maybe a handful to times in your life where you discover a book, that you want to keep by your bedside for the rest of your life.

For me that book is David Whyte’s ‘Consolations’. It ratcheted open my mind to a whole new perspective on the definitions of big words like Ambition, Courage and Heartbreak.

I’m not sure how to even begin to describe exactly what it is that David does. On paper he's an acclaimed poet, a writer and a philosopher…

But to my mind, after having spent a week with him on the Irish Atlantic coastline, I feel like he's a true elder, with a deep philosophical curiosity and gift for weaving together our inner and outer worlds in what he calls 'the conversational nature of reality’. 

We recorded this wide ranging conversation in David's cottage by a roaring fire and what I really hope comes across, is the way that his voice casts a spell of sorts that puts those listening (myself included) into a state of reverie and complete undiluted attention.

“Courage is a measure of our heartfelt participation with life with another with the community a work a future. To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere or to do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences.”

– David Whyte

🎙️The episode is also available on Spotify, Castro, Castbox, Stitcher and Google Play.

📝If audio isn’t your thing and you’d like to read a transcript of the conversation you can head over to Medium here (including photos taken from the Irish west coast).

❓The listener question for this episode is: "Do you have a favourite poem that you carry with you? How has poetry shaped your life?” – please share any thoughts in the comment thread.

💌And if you’d like to share this with a thoughtful friend via email just tap the button below or share on Twitter ;)