Vulnerability - David Whyte

Vulnerability is not a weakness, a passing indisposition, or
something we can arrange to do without.  Vulnerability is not a
choice, vulnerability is the underlying, ever present and abiding
undercurrent of our natural state.  To run from vulnerability is to
run from the essence of our nature.  The attempt to be invulnerable
is the vain attempt to become something we are not and most
especially, to close off our understanding of the grief of others.
More seriously, in refusing our vulnerability we refuse the help
needed at every turn of our existence.

To have a temporary, isolated sense of power over all events
and circumstances is a lovely illussionary privilege and perhaps
the prime and most beautifully constructed conceit of being human
and especially of being youthful human, but it is a privilege that
must be surrendered with that same youth, with ill health, with
loss of loved ones who do not share our untouchable powers;
powers eventually and most emphatically given up, as we
approach our last breath.

The only choice we have as we mature is how we inhabit our
vulnerability, how we become more courageous and more
compassionate through our intimacy with disappearance.
Our choice is to inhabit vulnerability as generous citizens of
 loss, robustly and fully, or conversely, as misers and complainers,
reluctant and fearful, always at the gates of existence, but never
walking fully through the door...


David Whyte

Excerpt from
Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying
Meaning of Everyday Words