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Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words
With the imagery of a poet and the reflection of a philosopher, David Whyte turns his attention to 52 ordinary words, each its own particular doorway into the underlying currents of human life.
Beginning with ALONE and closing with WORK, each chapter is a meditation on meaning and context, an invitation to shift and broaden our perspectives on the inevitable vicissitudes of life: pain and joy, honesty and anger, confession and vulnerability, the experience of feeling besieged and the desire to run away from it all. Through this lens, procrastination may be a necessary ripening; hiding an act of freedom; and shyness the appropriate confusion and helplessness that accompanies the first stage of revelation.
CONSOLATIONS invites readers into a poetic and thoughtful consideration of words whose meaning and interpretation influence the paths we choose and the way we traverse them throughout our lives.
Beginning with ALONE and closing with WORK, each chapter is a meditation on meaning and context, an invitation to shift and broaden our perspectives on the inevitable vicissitudes of life: pain and joy, honesty and anger, confession and vulnerability, the experience of feeling besieged and the desire to run away from it all. Through this lens, procrastination may be a necessary ripening; hiding an act of freedom; and shyness the appropriate confusion and helplessness that accompanies the first stage of revelation.
CONSOLATIONS invites readers into a poetic and thoughtful consideration of words whose meaning and interpretation influence the paths we choose and the way we traverse them throughout our lives.
245 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2014
About the author
David Whyte
74 books1,352 followersPoet David Whyte grew up with a strong, imaginative influence from his Irish mother among the hills and valleys of his father’s Yorkshire. He now makes his home in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
The author of seven books of poetry and three books of prose, David Whyte holds a degree in Marine Zoology and has traveled extensively, including living and working as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands and leading anthropological and natural history expeditions in the Andes, Amazon and Himalaya. He brings this wealth of experience to his poetry, lectures and workshops.
His life as a poet has created a readership and listenership in three normally mutually exclusive areas: the literate world of readings that most poets inhabit, the psychological and theological worlds of philosophical enquiry and the world of vocation, work and organizational leadership.
An Associate Fellow at Said Business School at the University of Oxford, he is one of the few poets to take his perspectives on creativity into the field of organizational development, where he works with many European, American and international companies. In spring of 2008 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Neumann College, Pennsylvania.
In organizational settings, using poetry and thoughtful commentary, he illustrates how we can foster qualities of courage and engagement; qualities needed if we are to respond to today’s call for increased creativity and adaptability in the workplace. He brings a unique and important contribution to our understanding of the nature of individual and organizational change, particularly through his unique perspectives on Conversational Leadership.
The author of seven books of poetry and three books of prose, David Whyte holds a degree in Marine Zoology and has traveled extensively, including living and working as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands and leading anthropological and natural history expeditions in the Andes, Amazon and Himalaya. He brings this wealth of experience to his poetry, lectures and workshops.
His life as a poet has created a readership and listenership in three normally mutually exclusive areas: the literate world of readings that most poets inhabit, the psychological and theological worlds of philosophical enquiry and the world of vocation, work and organizational leadership.
An Associate Fellow at Said Business School at the University of Oxford, he is one of the few poets to take his perspectives on creativity into the field of organizational development, where he works with many European, American and international companies. In spring of 2008 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Neumann College, Pennsylvania.
In organizational settings, using poetry and thoughtful commentary, he illustrates how we can foster qualities of courage and engagement; qualities needed if we are to respond to today’s call for increased creativity and adaptability in the workplace. He brings a unique and important contribution to our understanding of the nature of individual and organizational change, particularly through his unique perspectives on Conversational Leadership.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 439 reviews
July 13, 2015
Sometimes I want to forget everyone else and just read David Whyte.
These essays kindle the Divine and at the same time give me peace and hope in being human. This is a book to read and re-read. Every page is filled with wisdom, grace, comfort, freedom, and seemingly just whatever I need in the moment.
While these essays, and David Whyte's poetry, reach between worlds, David Whyte is here to embrace and explore, not to deny or resist anything. I appreciate that.
Take your pick from:
ALONE
AMBITION
ANGER
BEAUTY
BEGINNING
BESIEGED
CONFESSION
COURAGE
CRISIS
DENIAL
DESPAIR
DESTINY
DISAPPOINTMENT
FORGIVENESS
FRIENDSHIP
GENIUS
GIVING
GRATITUDE
GROUND
HAUNTED
HEARTBREAK
HELP
HIDING
HONESTY
ISTANBUL
JOY
LONELINESS
LONGING
MATURITY
MEMORY
NAMING
NOSTALGIA
PAIN
PARALLELS
PILGRIM
PROCRASTINATION
REGRET
REST
ROBUSTNESS
ROME
RUN AWAY
SELF-KNOWLEDGE
SHADOW
SHYNESS
SILENCE
SOLACE
TOUCH
UNCONDITIONAL
UNREQUITED
VULNERABILITY
WITHDRAWAL
WORK
And, man, does he have an artist's way with words.
Cleansing. Uplifting. Nourishing. Sublime.
I pretty much adore David Whyte.
These essays kindle the Divine and at the same time give me peace and hope in being human. This is a book to read and re-read. Every page is filled with wisdom, grace, comfort, freedom, and seemingly just whatever I need in the moment.
While these essays, and David Whyte's poetry, reach between worlds, David Whyte is here to embrace and explore, not to deny or resist anything. I appreciate that.
Take your pick from:
ALONE
AMBITION
ANGER
BEAUTY
BEGINNING
BESIEGED
CONFESSION
COURAGE
CRISIS
DENIAL
DESPAIR
DESTINY
DISAPPOINTMENT
FORGIVENESS
FRIENDSHIP
GENIUS
GIVING
GRATITUDE
GROUND
HAUNTED
HEARTBREAK
HELP
HIDING
HONESTY
ISTANBUL
JOY
LONELINESS
LONGING
MATURITY
MEMORY
NAMING
NOSTALGIA
PAIN
PARALLELS
PILGRIM
PROCRASTINATION
REGRET
REST
ROBUSTNESS
ROME
RUN AWAY
SELF-KNOWLEDGE
SHADOW
SHYNESS
SILENCE
SOLACE
TOUCH
UNCONDITIONAL
UNREQUITED
VULNERABILITY
WITHDRAWAL
WORK
And, man, does he have an artist's way with words.
Cleansing. Uplifting. Nourishing. Sublime.
I pretty much adore David Whyte.
December 4, 2021
A beautiful book of essays that I will read again and again.
A part from Joy
"dance, laughter, affection, skin touching skin, singing in the car, music in the kitchen, the quiet irreplaceable and companionable presence of a daughter."
A part from Despair
"despair takes us in when we have nowhere else to go: when we feel the heart cannot break any more, when our world or our loved ones disappear, when we feel we cannot be loved or do not deserve to be loved, when our God disappoints, or when our body is carrying profound pain in a way that does not seem to go away."
A part from Joy
"dance, laughter, affection, skin touching skin, singing in the car, music in the kitchen, the quiet irreplaceable and companionable presence of a daughter."
A part from Despair
"despair takes us in when we have nowhere else to go: when we feel the heart cannot break any more, when our world or our loved ones disappear, when we feel we cannot be loved or do not deserve to be loved, when our God disappoints, or when our body is carrying profound pain in a way that does not seem to go away."
April 5, 2016
“Dedicated to WORDS and their beautiful hidden and beckoning uncertainty.”
I was plunged deep into the depths of Whyte's luminous reflections, awash with awe at the kindness he treats his words with. Reading this was a healing experience. A salve to the bitterest soul wounds. A delicate weaving of poetic magic. A treasure trove waiting to be rediscovered over and over again.
This is the kind of book I would give to complete strangers. I would walk up to someone, shove it into their arms and say, "Hey. Please read this. Your heart needs it and you don't realize it."
I was plunged deep into the depths of Whyte's luminous reflections, awash with awe at the kindness he treats his words with. Reading this was a healing experience. A salve to the bitterest soul wounds. A delicate weaving of poetic magic. A treasure trove waiting to be rediscovered over and over again.
This is the kind of book I would give to complete strangers. I would walk up to someone, shove it into their arms and say, "Hey. Please read this. Your heart needs it and you don't realize it."
October 15, 2018
I came across Whyte's book a while back when browsing for new poetry. The high average vote on Goodreads made me curious, and so, here I am—
—disappointed.
A mismatch between expectations and experience usually means I was the wrong audience. And perhaps I was. With that in mind, here's my experience:
Consolations contains fifty or so chapters, titled according to feelings or attributes or common nouns (Regret, Maturity, Shadow). The two exceptions are Istanbul and Rome (?). Each chapter is a couple of pages long and starts with a sentence that incorporates the title. For example: Regret is a short, evocative and achingly beautiful word and Shadow does not exist by itself, it is cast by a real physical body. These sentences were hard to get past. Let's take a look at some more of them (unless there's a full stop at the end of the line, what you're reading is just the initial fragment):
These are just the ones that I highlighted as particularly... strange? They're mostly statements trying to harness the power of the copula, binding the chosen word with a "definition", aiming to sound both down-to-earth and lofty, to say a lot while not saying much. That undecided see-saw is the crux of the strangeness: each sentence states something that cannot really be denied (sure, heartbreak is unpreventable; sure, hiding is a way of staying alive), but each sentence is also so ambivalent that its value is hard to determine (not all heartbreak is unpreventable; hiding isn't the only way of staying alive). I agree that you could make a similar argument about most of literature—interpretation is hardly a precise science—but what I value in essays, especially those that purport to define words, are details, details, details. And the details here aren't.
A single example might suffice:
So many words and only one detail in this sentence, a single name (with an indefinite article!), and it's a weird one to put in any form of consolation. That aside, what does this sentence really say about ambition? The reader is chewing a whole lot of straw, but in the end there's little to swallow.
What consoles well? A haiku? A poem? An essay? A novel? I would hope all of those, at some point or other, depending on your mood and your fancy. The style should be irrelevant, though in this case perhaps it is telling. Think horoscope, where you can read your heart's desire in every line, yet you can't expect to pin down a concrete meaning, because, well...
—disappointed.
A mismatch between expectations and experience usually means I was the wrong audience. And perhaps I was. With that in mind, here's my experience:
Consolations contains fifty or so chapters, titled according to feelings or attributes or common nouns (Regret, Maturity, Shadow). The two exceptions are Istanbul and Rome (?). Each chapter is a couple of pages long and starts with a sentence that incorporates the title. For example: Regret is a short, evocative and achingly beautiful word and Shadow does not exist by itself, it is cast by a real physical body. These sentences were hard to get past. Let's take a look at some more of them (unless there's a full stop at the end of the line, what you're reading is just the initial fragment):
Alone is a word that stands by itself
Ambition is a word that lacks any real ambition
Anger is the deepest form of compassion
Beauty is the harvest of presence
Beginning well or beginning poorly, what is important is to begin, but the ability to make a good beginning is also an art form.
Besieged is how most people feel most of the time
Denial is underestimated as a state of being.
Disappointment is inescapable by necessary
Forgiveness is a heartache and difficult to achieve
Genius is something we already possess
Giving is a difficult and almost contemplative art form
Ground is what lies beneath our feet.
Heartbreak is unpreventable
Hiding is a way of staying alive.
Maturity is the ability to live fully and equally in multiple contexts
Memory is not just a then, recalled in a now, the past is never just the past, memory is a pulse passing through all created life, a waveform, a then continually becoming other thens, all the while creating a continual but almost untouchable now.
Nostalgia is the arriving waveform of a dynamic past
Parallels are not what we think
Procrastination is not always what it seems.
Run away is what most human beings would like to do a great deal of the time.
Self-knowledge is not fully possible for human beings.
Unconditional love is not fully possible.
Unrequited love is the love human beings experience most of the time.
Vulnerability is not a weakness
Withdrawal can be the very best way of stepping forward
Work among all its abstracts, is actually intimacy
These are just the ones that I highlighted as particularly... strange? They're mostly statements trying to harness the power of the copula, binding the chosen word with a "definition", aiming to sound both down-to-earth and lofty, to say a lot while not saying much. That undecided see-saw is the crux of the strangeness: each sentence states something that cannot really be denied (sure, heartbreak is unpreventable; sure, hiding is a way of staying alive), but each sentence is also so ambivalent that its value is hard to determine (not all heartbreak is unpreventable; hiding isn't the only way of staying alive). I agree that you could make a similar argument about most of literature—interpretation is hardly a precise science—but what I value in essays, especially those that purport to define words, are details, details, details. And the details here aren't.
A single example might suffice:
Ambition left to itself, like a Rupert Murdoch, always becomes tedious, its only object the creation of larger and larger empires of control; but a true vocation calls us out beyond ourselves; breaks our heart in the process and then humbles, simplifies and enlightens us about the hidden, core nature of the work that enticed us in the first place.
So many words and only one detail in this sentence, a single name (with an indefinite article!), and it's a weird one to put in any form of consolation. That aside, what does this sentence really say about ambition? The reader is chewing a whole lot of straw, but in the end there's little to swallow.
What consoles well? A haiku? A poem? An essay? A novel? I would hope all of those, at some point or other, depending on your mood and your fancy. The style should be irrelevant, though in this case perhaps it is telling. Think horoscope, where you can read your heart's desire in every line, yet you can't expect to pin down a concrete meaning, because, well...
Read
July 14, 2016This is not a book one reads straight through. Instead, it is to opened intentionally or accidentally to one of the short 2 or 3 page entries: genius, Istanbul, procrastination, silence. Read slowly. Savor. Let the words move you. This is a book I will be reading for the rest of my life.
March 11, 2015
Dear Fellow Book Lovers,
I am very excited to recommend to you, Consolations, The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words, by David Whyte. My excitement stems from the fact that I have rarely read such a valuable book, and by that I mean that this 245-page collection of two-to-four page essays rewards the reader with a treasure trove of insights into what it means to be a human being. Whyte, a poet of considerable renown, with seven volumes of poetry to his credit, (as well as four books of prose), takes words like Alone, Beauty, Friendship, Joy, Pain, and Work, to name just a few, and presents a short essay on each that is filled with discoveries that stir both an intellectual and emotional reaction.
Whyte utilizes a beautiful lyrical style to explore the depths of meaning for each word, and one will find his or her head nodding in agreement with one paragraph, and smiling and shaking one's head in amazement at discovering something entirely new in the next. And because the author manages to capture so many angles of insight in a short space, one can easily return to a chapter for rereading and the further reward this offers.
The genius of David Whyte was introduced to me by a good friend, Julienne Givot , and the best way I know to thank her is to introduce it to others.
I am very excited to recommend to you, Consolations, The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words, by David Whyte. My excitement stems from the fact that I have rarely read such a valuable book, and by that I mean that this 245-page collection of two-to-four page essays rewards the reader with a treasure trove of insights into what it means to be a human being. Whyte, a poet of considerable renown, with seven volumes of poetry to his credit, (as well as four books of prose), takes words like Alone, Beauty, Friendship, Joy, Pain, and Work, to name just a few, and presents a short essay on each that is filled with discoveries that stir both an intellectual and emotional reaction.
Whyte utilizes a beautiful lyrical style to explore the depths of meaning for each word, and one will find his or her head nodding in agreement with one paragraph, and smiling and shaking one's head in amazement at discovering something entirely new in the next. And because the author manages to capture so many angles of insight in a short space, one can easily return to a chapter for rereading and the further reward this offers.
The genius of David Whyte was introduced to me by a good friend, Julienne Givot , and the best way I know to thank her is to introduce it to others.
June 18, 2017
This is 245 pages of word salad. It's the kind of writing that sounds good flowing past the ear and eye until you really stop to examine the progression and coherence of the author's ideas and and fall into a vat of mushy philosophical stew. Not one of these essays held up to even a cursory analysis; the ideas are all over the place.
A secondary weakness of this meandering series of essays is that they are completely conceptual. There is nary a story or concrete example to illustrate any of Whyte's ideas, leaving the reader struggling through a barrage of sentences which often contradict each other.
A very disappointing effort by a fine writer.
A secondary weakness of this meandering series of essays is that they are completely conceptual. There is nary a story or concrete example to illustrate any of Whyte's ideas, leaving the reader struggling through a barrage of sentences which often contradict each other.
A very disappointing effort by a fine writer.
December 19, 2016
Sadly, this didn't move me the way I expected. Each entry is lovely on its own, but as a collection I found them homogenous, with no break in the texture and flow. This gave me a rapidly decreasing sense of enjoyment. Probably a mistake to try to read it as book, instead of exploring one entry as a time, with a pause for reflection.
October 30, 2021
David White is a poet. In this book, he applies his poetic vision of the world and commitment to and love of language to the examination of a number of common words, words we use often without thinking. He holds these words up to the light which prisms them into new and (often for me) unexpected colors.
He presents positive aspects to words I certainly saw as negative: loneliness, procrastination, despair, denial. In his hands, these words become a pathway to a richer, deeper experience of life. He does indeed find the solace and nourishment of pain and fear and how they (can) lead us to greater life.
A lovely book that opens new perspectives on how to be in the world, how to see the world. A poet's gift to us.
I want now to read his poetry!
He presents positive aspects to words I certainly saw as negative: loneliness, procrastination, despair, denial. In his hands, these words become a pathway to a richer, deeper experience of life. He does indeed find the solace and nourishment of pain and fear and how they (can) lead us to greater life.
A lovely book that opens new perspectives on how to be in the world, how to see the world. A poet's gift to us.
I want now to read his poetry!
June 7, 2022
Despite the fundamental definitions, brilliant imagery, and eloquent answers he uses to bring these words to life-- stunning mini-editorials on the many assays and challenges man must vault over in every sector of life-- I think Whyte's real talent lies in the many questions I was left with after finishing each.
Take, for example, one of the very first entries-- Anger. As someone very rarely prone to anger, I found his characterization of it quite liberating: understanding it as a function of care (for others or the self) surpassing the mind and body's ability to contain it moves us from the threatening and loveless image of anger to one that is more compassionate and understanding. But can the body actually be large enough and strong enough to hold the force of our powerless, punishing care / love that turns into anger? Or is that just an optimistic myth? If anger "illuminates what we belong to, what we wish to protect and what we are willing to hazard ourselves for", what is to be assumed about our limits of understanding and the constraints of our daily life that care must be transformed into something incoherent? To prevent rage from creeping up on a love, must we always, then, confine it to the shallows of our hearts? Can one harbor a love that is deep and also peaceful.
And that's only one of them.
Whyte holds an admirable standard of compassion: for ourselves and for others. He posits that, within the world of inarticulable Beauty and Goodness we inhabit, belonging is both essential and assailable. Being seen or heard or understood or wanted are earned facets of the human experience. Whyte recognizes that the consequences for not deserving those things are often fatal, but also that this very lack can lead to a place of discovery and redemption.
Despair, he says, is one of the purest havens we can occupy for ourselves. Grief is the healing howl of love redistributing. Solitude is the antidote for self-deception. Heartbreak is the participation in the restructuring of the self and reality.
Everything is about love for this guy. And I love that. I admire that. I am more envious of his firm conviction than I care to admit. His philosophy is one where every vile human impulse is translated into care that is simply being handled by atrophied senses, inhospitable circumstances. Every pitiable fumble and graceless mistake is but a product of overextension and ignorance. He has an unbounded and unwavering belief in people and their essential goodness. His perspective and belief are in themselves gifts; to hold it in your hands and read from cover to cover is another deep and profoundly moving one, indeed.
Essentials:
"Courage is what love looks like when tested by the simple everyday necessities of being alive." (Courage)
"Despair takes us in when we have nowhere else to go; when we feel the heart cannot break anymore. [...] It is a last protection. [...] It is the place we go when we no longer want to make a home in the world and where we feel that we may never have deserved that home in the first place. " (Despair)
"To be disappointed is to reappraise not only reality itself but our foundational relationship to the pattern of events, places, and people that surround us, and which, until we were properly disappointed, we had misinterpreted and misunderstood." (Disappointment)
FRIENDSHIP (the entire section. what gems).
"To stop giving in any situation is to call an end to relationship." (Giving)
"We are, miraculously, part of something rather than nothing. Even if that something is temporarily pain or despair, we inhabit a living world, with real faces, real voices, laughter, the color blue." (Gratitude)
"It is unpreventable; the natural outcome of caring for people and things over which we have no control, of holding in our affections those who inevitably move beyond our line of sight. [...] It is an indication of our sincerity." (Heartbreak)
"Even the most solitary writer needs a reader." (Help)
"What is precious inside us does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence. [...] Hiding is an act of freedom from the misunderstanding of others." (Hiding)
"We name mostly in order to control, but what is worth loving does not want to be held within the bounds of too narrow a calling. In many ways love has already named us before we can even begin to speak back to it, before we can utter the right words or understand what has happened to us or is continuing to happen: an invitation to the most difficult art, to love without naming at all." (Naming)
"What is abiding in human life is the actual daily conversation that occurs in the very shadow of the monuments we raise to our abstract desires." (Rome)
"Whom could we know so well and so intimately through all the twists and turns of a given life that we could show them, exactly, the continuous and appropriate form of love they need?" (Unrequited)
"We make what we make, we give a gift, not only through what we make or do, but in the way we feel as we do, and even in the way others witness us in our feeling and doing." (Work)
Take, for example, one of the very first entries-- Anger. As someone very rarely prone to anger, I found his characterization of it quite liberating: understanding it as a function of care (for others or the self) surpassing the mind and body's ability to contain it moves us from the threatening and loveless image of anger to one that is more compassionate and understanding. But can the body actually be large enough and strong enough to hold the force of our powerless, punishing care / love that turns into anger? Or is that just an optimistic myth? If anger "illuminates what we belong to, what we wish to protect and what we are willing to hazard ourselves for", what is to be assumed about our limits of understanding and the constraints of our daily life that care must be transformed into something incoherent? To prevent rage from creeping up on a love, must we always, then, confine it to the shallows of our hearts? Can one harbor a love that is deep and also peaceful.
And that's only one of them.
Whyte holds an admirable standard of compassion: for ourselves and for others. He posits that, within the world of inarticulable Beauty and Goodness we inhabit, belonging is both essential and assailable. Being seen or heard or understood or wanted are earned facets of the human experience. Whyte recognizes that the consequences for not deserving those things are often fatal, but also that this very lack can lead to a place of discovery and redemption.
Despair, he says, is one of the purest havens we can occupy for ourselves. Grief is the healing howl of love redistributing. Solitude is the antidote for self-deception. Heartbreak is the participation in the restructuring of the self and reality.
Everything is about love for this guy. And I love that. I admire that. I am more envious of his firm conviction than I care to admit. His philosophy is one where every vile human impulse is translated into care that is simply being handled by atrophied senses, inhospitable circumstances. Every pitiable fumble and graceless mistake is but a product of overextension and ignorance. He has an unbounded and unwavering belief in people and their essential goodness. His perspective and belief are in themselves gifts; to hold it in your hands and read from cover to cover is another deep and profoundly moving one, indeed.
Essentials:
"Courage is what love looks like when tested by the simple everyday necessities of being alive." (Courage)
"Despair takes us in when we have nowhere else to go; when we feel the heart cannot break anymore. [...] It is a last protection. [...] It is the place we go when we no longer want to make a home in the world and where we feel that we may never have deserved that home in the first place. " (Despair)
"To be disappointed is to reappraise not only reality itself but our foundational relationship to the pattern of events, places, and people that surround us, and which, until we were properly disappointed, we had misinterpreted and misunderstood." (Disappointment)
FRIENDSHIP (the entire section. what gems).
"To stop giving in any situation is to call an end to relationship." (Giving)
"We are, miraculously, part of something rather than nothing. Even if that something is temporarily pain or despair, we inhabit a living world, with real faces, real voices, laughter, the color blue." (Gratitude)
"It is unpreventable; the natural outcome of caring for people and things over which we have no control, of holding in our affections those who inevitably move beyond our line of sight. [...] It is an indication of our sincerity." (Heartbreak)
"Even the most solitary writer needs a reader." (Help)
"What is precious inside us does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence. [...] Hiding is an act of freedom from the misunderstanding of others." (Hiding)
"We name mostly in order to control, but what is worth loving does not want to be held within the bounds of too narrow a calling. In many ways love has already named us before we can even begin to speak back to it, before we can utter the right words or understand what has happened to us or is continuing to happen: an invitation to the most difficult art, to love without naming at all." (Naming)
"What is abiding in human life is the actual daily conversation that occurs in the very shadow of the monuments we raise to our abstract desires." (Rome)
"Whom could we know so well and so intimately through all the twists and turns of a given life that we could show them, exactly, the continuous and appropriate form of love they need?" (Unrequited)
"We make what we make, we give a gift, not only through what we make or do, but in the way we feel as we do, and even in the way others witness us in our feeling and doing." (Work)
July 14, 2020
This is a book about paying courageous attention to your life. It will slow you and startle you, even as it soothes. Whyte invites us to encounter the painful and prosaic realities that make up our everyday experiences in order to engage life more fully. He consistently and carefully turns words inside out, and thus, turns your attention from outside in and back again. Whyte invites you to both see and sail in the larger conversational tide of your past, present, and future.
This book is beautiful, and one I know I will read over and over again my entire life. I don’t say that often.
Side note: Whyte’s use of metaphor is astounding.
This book is beautiful, and one I know I will read over and over again my entire life. I don’t say that often.
Side note: Whyte’s use of metaphor is astounding.
May 7, 2015
I like this book so much. He is a poet, which is undoubtedly why each chapter is very short and packed with insights. This is that rare book where I could underline every sentence because each one is thought-provoking. I find it very interesting that he is also a business consultant and has a degree in marine biology. I intend to always keep this book near my bedside and open it to a random page from time to time for inspiration.
March 9, 2018
Exquisite. I cherished this book for a few brief but intense months, opening it on random pages, sometimes reading sequentially but always slowly, always savoring. Whyte makes the quotidian new again, granting fresh perspectives on words and feelings we thought we knew.
I wanted to hold on to it longer; forever, maybe, to continue perusing and learning from. Each moment with it was different. But it was not mine to keep—is anything? It is now in the hands of someone who will, I know, adore it as well and possibly also let it go when appropriate. (I could buy my own copy. I won’t: it somehow feels right to pass it on, even though it hurts too.)
With deep gratitude, on this International Women’s Day, to the remarkable woman who introduced me to this book and allowed me to visit with it.
I wanted to hold on to it longer; forever, maybe, to continue perusing and learning from. Each moment with it was different. But it was not mine to keep—is anything? It is now in the hands of someone who will, I know, adore it as well and possibly also let it go when appropriate. (I could buy my own copy. I won’t: it somehow feels right to pass it on, even though it hurts too.)
With deep gratitude, on this International Women’s Day, to the remarkable woman who introduced me to this book and allowed me to visit with it.
May 23, 2022
Very beautiful and contemplative exploration of language. Meditative. Reflective.
3.5 stars for me, and this is more of a book-reader mismatch... I struggle to slow down enough to savour these micro-essays. I will, however, check out Whyte in audio form (as was recommended to me) and also pass on this book as a rec to a few people who I an more certain will be able to savour it!
3.5 stars for me, and this is more of a book-reader mismatch... I struggle to slow down enough to savour these micro-essays. I will, however, check out Whyte in audio form (as was recommended to me) and also pass on this book as a rec to a few people who I an more certain will be able to savour it!
October 31, 2022
This isn't a book to finish, rather it's one to pick up for inspiration or for a perspective shift. I would categorize Whyte as an accessible poet/ philosopher. His style is lyrical, and somewhat melancholy. Although his definitions of everyday words often hit the spot I found little to puzzle over.
August 19, 2022
Reflections and lessons learned:
“But to feel alone in the presence of others is also to understand the singularity of human existence whilst experiencing the deep physical current that binds us to others whether we want that binding or no: aloneness can measure togetherness even through a sense of distance”
Wow. This book felt very densely packed (all killer, no filler musical lend? You are the philosophical side of Deryck Whibley!). Quite intense to read, and it’s frustratingly taken me several months to get through what is, on page numbers, a relatively short book, but I think it was worth it. I was initially attracted as it dealt with the notion of subjects that we think we understand and know how to use, but these are often words that we’ve just learned with sounds and simple definitions hung off them, not considered much further than that despite them being some of the keys to the labyrinth of life - confession, courage, disappointment, loneliness, longing, unrequited (this last one being one of my favourites as a concept - if I can crack that, I can crack anything)… feeling plus sentence equals reach for that word if synonym already used - different jars on a shelf as it were. But this book emptied the metaphorical jam from the jar, and analysed each seed, and then some potential feelings and emotions attached to the consumption from a philosophical perspective (raspberry conserve being the most interesting - yum scrum, in my tum. See what I did there with the words?)
So why have I rated this book 5 stars? I sometimes resented it for the energy that it took from me, and the full on attention that it required, but the commitment that has gone into the compilation is the very definition of mindfulness. The index alone feels inspiring, almost poetic. This would be a great book for anyone lost that needs to find a surface level again, or a teen in the depths of starting on a life reflective path - a potential print purchase for the family and friends in the future!
“Unconditional love is the beautiful, hoped-for impossibility, and yet we could not fully understand the nature of our helplessness without looking through the lens of that hoped - for perfection. We are creatures who do not get to choose between what we want and what is wanted of us, and we seem to embody the full vulnerabilities of love only when we dwell at the moving frontier between this wanting and being wanted.”
“But to feel alone in the presence of others is also to understand the singularity of human existence whilst experiencing the deep physical current that binds us to others whether we want that binding or no: aloneness can measure togetherness even through a sense of distance”
Wow. This book felt very densely packed (all killer, no filler musical lend? You are the philosophical side of Deryck Whibley!). Quite intense to read, and it’s frustratingly taken me several months to get through what is, on page numbers, a relatively short book, but I think it was worth it. I was initially attracted as it dealt with the notion of subjects that we think we understand and know how to use, but these are often words that we’ve just learned with sounds and simple definitions hung off them, not considered much further than that despite them being some of the keys to the labyrinth of life - confession, courage, disappointment, loneliness, longing, unrequited (this last one being one of my favourites as a concept - if I can crack that, I can crack anything)… feeling plus sentence equals reach for that word if synonym already used - different jars on a shelf as it were. But this book emptied the metaphorical jam from the jar, and analysed each seed, and then some potential feelings and emotions attached to the consumption from a philosophical perspective (raspberry conserve being the most interesting - yum scrum, in my tum. See what I did there with the words?)
So why have I rated this book 5 stars? I sometimes resented it for the energy that it took from me, and the full on attention that it required, but the commitment that has gone into the compilation is the very definition of mindfulness. The index alone feels inspiring, almost poetic. This would be a great book for anyone lost that needs to find a surface level again, or a teen in the depths of starting on a life reflective path - a potential print purchase for the family and friends in the future!
“Unconditional love is the beautiful, hoped-for impossibility, and yet we could not fully understand the nature of our helplessness without looking through the lens of that hoped - for perfection. We are creatures who do not get to choose between what we want and what is wanted of us, and we seem to embody the full vulnerabilities of love only when we dwell at the moving frontier between this wanting and being wanted.”
March 2, 2020
About as profound as a 5-day old flat-fish. Clearly I'm not in sympathy with either the prose or the sentiments. The writing is pretentious nonsense: "Destiny always has a possessor, as in my destiny or your destiny or her destiny; it gives a sense of something we cannot avoid or something waiting for us; it is a word of torybook or mythic dimension". Apart from trying to work out what 'torybook' might mean (and if it's a typo then the editor needs firing—well they needed firing before this…), I picked this opening passage at random. "Honesty is reached through the doorway of grief and loss". But I could quote from any of the 175 pages of awkward, overblown prose. One last one "A deep experience of rest is the template of perfection in the human imagination…". I like to think I'm a good judge of fine prose, but clearly by comparison with the rest of the reviewers of this book, I'm on a different planet!
June 15, 2018
I can hardly remember a book that I have savored more than Consolations. (This is, in part, because I tend to devour books that I enjoy) Every single word is intentional and meaningful; Whyte has the ability to cause one to reflect deeply on "everyday words."
I borrowed this from the library, but then had to go out and buy my own copy. So, so good.
I borrowed this from the library, but then had to go out and buy my own copy. So, so good.
December 14, 2020
One of the most perfectly written books I've read this year. So succinct, so wise. Spent more time marvelling at what he was saying than on actually reading it. I kept thinking throughout that the words here are stacked like rocks- carefully chosen and not one out of place.
If I was to be picky, I'd take a half star off because I did not get emotionally invested in this, which feels like an important parameter to me in loving books. But gosh, what a musing filled, beautiful journey this was. Some chapters resonated with me much more deeply than the others, and by the end I was so immersed in it that it felt like home in all the good and less good ways. I was itching to move on to my next read. I still recommend reading in sips and taking your time with this one!
If I was to be picky, I'd take a half star off because I did not get emotionally invested in this, which feels like an important parameter to me in loving books. But gosh, what a musing filled, beautiful journey this was. Some chapters resonated with me much more deeply than the others, and by the end I was so immersed in it that it felt like home in all the good and less good ways. I was itching to move on to my next read. I still recommend reading in sips and taking your time with this one!
August 10, 2020
Don't get me wrong: the ideas and observations described are for sure profound. But I really struggled with the way it is written, as I value clear, concise writing. This was a little overloaded for me. Plus, the inflationary use of the word "generous" was a real problem. Oftentimes I suspect that it's added to make the thought sound more deep than it is (of which I already had enough watching School of Life on YouTube).
February 8, 2022
This book has been instrumental in my daily walk through life. I highly recommend this book to anyone. The book is full of short and poignant reflections that assist in navigating life’s complexities. My plan is to see how these reflections continue to reveal new insights into the remaining stages of life.
June 17, 2021
A wonderful reflection word by word, nice to take in one small chapter at a time with morning coffee. Lends to a quiet and meditative wake up.
September 25, 2021
Masterful. Every sentence is teeming with insight and beautifully crafted. This was my first taste of Whyte and I'm already hungry for more.
September 28, 2023
A beautiful and thoughtful look at the depth of meaning in certain words.
October 14, 2023
4.5 ⭐️ Absolutely lovely. A book to return to. My favorite part of this is how Whyte reframes words and experiences we may associate with negatively and offers a beautiful, human counterpoint about their value.
November 28, 2023
Thank you David Whyte for changing the way I experience and frame my emotions 🥹
March 8, 2021
This is essentially a book of poetry, art and love. It is beautiful.
December 12, 2021
A pilgrimage in 200 pages. A manual on how to pay attention, find wonder, hide, face pain, break and heal. A guide on how to become a human being with a full wingspan, to take pride in our shyness and vulnerability, to find our own way as "generous citizens of loss."
Stunning.
Stunning.
April 23, 2021
What a profound book this was. David Whyte's idea for it was taking 52 everyday words and broadening or, I would in many cases even say, shifting our perspective on them. He does this through short but dense meditations making up the 52 chapters of the book. And when I say dense, I mean really dense. Not in the bad sense of the word, maybe rich would be a better and more positive sounding word. I found that my experience of reading these meditations often resembled my experience of reading poetry: To really begin to understand what is being said I have to read the text at least two times and with full concentration. As I said, it's not that the ideas are very complicated, as much as them just being really densely interwoven and packed into the chapters. What also plays into this is Whyte's poetic and intentional language.
Well, let me just show you what I mean by providing you with an example of Whyte's mastery:
"Self-knowledge is not fully possible for human beings. We do not reside in a body, a mind or a world where it is achievable or from the point of being interesting, even desirable. Half of what lies in the heart and mind is potentiality; resides in the darkness of the unspoken and unarticulated and has not yet come into being: this hidden unspoken half of a person will supplant and subvert any present understandings we have about ourselves. Human beings are always, and always will be, a frontier between what is known and what is not known."
So this is an excerpt from the chapter about self-knowledge. Other chapters I liked a lot were about unrequited love, naming, memory, loneliness, help, heartbreak, friendship and ambition.
Something that Whyte does in many of these chapters is to show the possibilities and the potential for good hidden in the aspects of our live we mostly perceive as negative (e.g. loneliness, heartbreak, anger).
Summing up, I think this was an insightful read which offered me many interesting perspectives I will keep thinking about for some while.
Well, let me just show you what I mean by providing you with an example of Whyte's mastery:
"Self-knowledge is not fully possible for human beings. We do not reside in a body, a mind or a world where it is achievable or from the point of being interesting, even desirable. Half of what lies in the heart and mind is potentiality; resides in the darkness of the unspoken and unarticulated and has not yet come into being: this hidden unspoken half of a person will supplant and subvert any present understandings we have about ourselves. Human beings are always, and always will be, a frontier between what is known and what is not known."
So this is an excerpt from the chapter about self-knowledge. Other chapters I liked a lot were about unrequited love, naming, memory, loneliness, help, heartbreak, friendship and ambition.
Something that Whyte does in many of these chapters is to show the possibilities and the potential for good hidden in the aspects of our live we mostly perceive as negative (e.g. loneliness, heartbreak, anger).
Summing up, I think this was an insightful read which offered me many interesting perspectives I will keep thinking about for some while.
January 2, 2023
After reading such a moving and human work on words, I am left in confrontation with the inadequacy of my own to encapsulate the awash emotional current(s). I wish Whyte would have given magic to the titular word Consolations so that I could have parroted or quoted him. Alas, this book is a brush with the self through words - which is really all good language, all good literature - but here particularly about words themselves.
(If you're familiar, it's like the love-child between John Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed and Ross Gay's The Book of Delights injected with a singlemindedness for words. A poet writing prose about the humanity in, of, about, through the lens of language.)
I will conclude my poor recapitulation with this: few books have drawn like physical reactions (a whistle here, a "woah" there, even speechlessness, the lack thereof reaction), and left my heart so brimful, and my mind so stimulated as Consolations
I wish to give you the entire book here in notes and quotes, and so I'll leave you with none because any attempt would be a disservice. Go to the source, dive into it and, hence, yourself.
(If you're familiar, it's like the love-child between John Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed and Ross Gay's The Book of Delights injected with a singlemindedness for words. A poet writing prose about the humanity in, of, about, through the lens of language.)
I will conclude my poor recapitulation with this: few books have drawn like physical reactions (a whistle here, a "woah" there, even speechlessness, the lack thereof reaction), and left my heart so brimful, and my mind so stimulated as Consolations
I wish to give you the entire book here in notes and quotes, and so I'll leave you with none because any attempt would be a disservice. Go to the source, dive into it and, hence, yourself.
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