Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity

I read this book a couple of months back when it was handed out at the end of a leadership seminar I attended. It is really an exceptional piece of literature. Some of the basic principles of life and work have been explained through simple art of story telling. I work in a hostile environment. The management believes that employees are there to work for them and to tolerate their whims and fancies. For example, at the beginning of every new project our director asks for 10 different documents none of which is actually ever used. He insults people by belittling their contribution and makes life miserable for anybody who dares to stand up to him. After reading this book I realized why I am working, who I represent everyday, what are my duties as an employee and what will happen if I quit. David's wisdom gave me strength to reassess my life and priorities and I realized that we had been dealing with work in a wrong way. Our work is really a way for us to express ourselves to the world. It is a window to our character and creativity. If someone insults me, he is insulting my parents, my family, all that I am. I found the ideas revealing, the prose lucid and thought strong. I decided to act. Next time when the confrontation occurred, instead of running away, I stood up to my manager and told him that company policy forbids him from saying and doing things he had been doing. I further told him that I have worked honestly and if he couldn't respect that, he could hire someone who can do a better job. From that day, he has stopped raising his voice and has become a very rational person with me. He knows I work hard and I don't listen to unreasonable demands and behavior. I have been having a great time at work. My coworkers think I am great because the director listens to me and respects me. What they need to learn is that he respects my strenght and clarity of thought, 2 things that I aquired from this book.

I read The Heart ARoused and found it interesting, appreciated the poetic references. But Crossing the Unknown Sea! It was one inspiring book. And I would add that it is not only a "pilgrimage of Identity" and that it applies to the work environment, but basically, it has to do "where the Self meets the World" whether at work, in a relationship, or, as in my case, in retirement, which is a whole new arena of "self-meeting-soul." David reports "constant busyness has no absence in it - no birdsong at the start of the day." And that is where so many retirement plans falter. Without busyness, the retiree fears boredom, becomes entranced with golf or bridge or ?? and instead, finds him/herself terrified at the absence of meaning in his/her life. As a poet, I was inspired by David's meeting with Brother David, the matter of the antidote for exhaustion, "not necessarily rest," but "wholeheartedness." I was alive at the meeting between those two Souls, I felt as though i were there, hearing that word again, "wholeheartedness" and David's resolve "to do at least one thing every day toward (his)future life as a poet." And Brother David's extraordinary courage to confront his friend with the fact that he "was beginning to rot on the vine." I read this as I gazed at the mountains around Mammoth Lake - and remembered that whatever one's passion, a vow to work toward that goal every day is the only way to sail across that unknown sea. This book holds its place of honor on my bookcase, is a book I have sent to my children, and to special friends, friends who can appreciate the vast calm and meaning within its pages.

Couldn't put this book down, had to read it from beginning to end and immediately it was done, I started slowly again from the beginning. I found myself making hundreds of little crossings as I read David Whyte's beautiful prose: crossing to memories of childhood, to crucial thresholds in my life as a young woman, to a deeper sense of my present life and a fuller sense of the future. Amidst all the success oriented drivel out there on the subject of work this is a real heirloom gem; something to be passed on to others as a gift, to be thanked for, and to be talked about for years to come.

A wonderfully written book about what goes on inside your head, whether your aware of it or not, as you relate to your chosen work. It makes you examine the details of your relationship with what you do for a living and just how happy and content you really are with it. Being true to yourself and making a living using your God-given talents is a scary thing for most people. We come into the world and become conditioned by doubts and fears and sometimes we live our whole lives reacting falsely because of them. Interspersed with poetic references, this book is a great soul-search read. I enjoyed it very much.