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Have a Little Faith

9 September 2014

Allison thought about the full moon and was reminded of one of her favorite David Whyte poems, Faith.

Tags: allison read, balance, david whyte, grief, happiness, optimism, poetry

Ever since I was a child I have loved the moon in all its phases. On any given day you can ask me what the moon is up to and I can pretty much tell you what size it will be that night and when it will be full again. I can happily sit under a bright moon for hours and I even enjoy the peaceful darkness of a new moon.

For years, the moon has had a reliability to me that I find comforting. It is right up there with the joy I feel about living in a place with four distinct seasons. Life can sometimes be unpredictable, but the moon and the changing of seasons almost always make me feel grounded.



(It's hard to take a good picture of the moon, but that's actually one of my favorite things about it.)

A few years ago, I stumbled upon a poem by David Whyte about the moon called, Faith. You can read the poem here and learn a little more about how Whyte's verses help me to both have faith in myself and give up my fear of failure.

It was a bit too cloudy to enjoy the full moon in Charlottesville, VA, last night, but I'm hopeful the clouds might part enough tonight for me to catch a glimpse. However, even if I can't see the moon, I'll be reminding myself that it's still up there doing its thing.

It's one of those times in my life where I wonder if I've handled a few things the right way and I find myself struggling to have faith that everything will work out as it should. In these times, I can read Whyte's poem out loud a few times and do my best to get back to my normal state of mind which involves believing that "Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end." (Even the most optimistic among us sometimes need help remembering that during the difficult times you've actually got to practice your way back to optimism.)



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