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Friday, September 24, 2004

"We are our gift to others and the world" 

“The stakes in good work are necessarily high. Our competence may be at stake in ordinary, unthinking work, but in good work that is a heartfelt expression of ourselves, we necessarily put our very identities to hazard. Perhaps it is because we know, in the end, we are our gift to others and the world. Failure in truly creative work is not some mechanical breakdown but the prospect of a failure in our very essence, a kind of living death. Little wonder we often choose the less vulnerable, more familiar approach, that places work mostly in terms of provision. If I can reduce my image of work to just a job I have to do, then I keep myself safely away from the losses to be endured in putting my heart’s desire at stake.”

David Whyte, in Crossing the Unknown Sea - Work and the Shaping of Identity

We are our gift to others and the world…

I have a feeling there are going to be a lot more quotes from this book showing up here.


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