Sometimes
Sometimes if you move carefully through the forest,
breathing like the ones in the old stories
who could pass a shimmering bed of leaves without a sound,
You come to a place whose only task
is to trouble you with tiny but frightening requests.
Conceived out of nowhere
But in this place leading everywhere.
Request to stop what you are doing
And to stop what you are becoming while you do it,
Questions that can make or unmake a life.
Questions that have patiently waited for you.
Questions that have no right to go away.
Self-portraitIt does not interest me if there is one God
or many gods.
I want to know if you belong
or feel abandoned.
I want to know if you know despair or see it in others.
I want to know
if you are prepared to live in the world
with its harsh need
to change you. If you can look back
again with firm eyes,
saying: This is where I stand.
I want to know
if you know
how to melt into that fierce heat of living,
falling forward
to the center of your longing.
I want to know if you are willing
to live, day by day, with the consequences of love
and the bitter
unwanted passion of your sure defeat.
I have heard, in that fierce embrace, even
the gods speak of God.
Zelfportret
Het interesseert mij niet of er één god is of meerdere goden.
Ik wil weten of jij je thuis voelt of verlaten.
Of jij wanhoop kent of het kunt zien in anderen.
Ik wil weten
of je bereid bent te leven in de wereld
met haar sterke neiging
om jou te veranderen. Of je kunt omzien met ferme ogen en kunt zeggen:
Dit is waar ik sta.
Ik wil weten of jij weet hoe je kunt wegsmelten in die vurige hitte van het leven,
voorover vallend naar
het centrum van je verlangen.
Ik wil weten of je bereid bent om te leven,
dag na dag, met de gevolgen van
liefde
en de bittere ongewenste hartstocht
van je zekere verlies.
Ik heb gehoord dat in die onstuimige omhelzing,
zelfs de goden spreken van God.
Loaves and fishes
This is not the age of information
This is not the age of information.
Forget the news,
and the radio,
and the blurred screen.
This is the time
of loaves
and fishes.
People are hungry,
and one good word
is bread
for a thousand.
Brood en vissen
Dit is niet het informatietijdperk.
Dit is niet het informatietijdperk
Vergeet het nieuws
en de radio,
en het vervaagde scherm.
Dit is de tijd
van brood en vissen.
Mensen hebben honger
en één goed woord
is brood
voor duizenden.
Conversational Leadership
