Introduction
Sam and David discuss the inspiration for creating this series.
Alone
Recognize how aloneness is an invitation to depth — and an imminent threat.
Ambition
Reflect upon the ease and disease of ambition.
Courage
Consider how courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life.
Friendship
Discover the ultimate touchstone of friendship.
Honesty
Learn what it means to be truly honest — with oneself and the world.
Genius
See how genius is not a fixed platform arrived at solely through accomplishment.
Heartbreak
Explore how heartbreak colors, inhabits, and magnifies each and every day.
Nostalgia
See how nostalgia tells us we are in the presence of imminent revelation.
Beginning
Learn how the ability to make a good beginning is an art form.
Close
Discover how our human essence lies not in arrival, but in being almost there.
Denial
Examine how denial is the crossroads between perception and readiness.
Destiny
Notice how the way we face the world alters the face that we see in that world.
Help
See how help is an absolute necessity — and something we want to do without.
Hiding
Discover how hiding is an act of freedom from the misunderstanding of others.
Joy
Explore how joy is the raw engagement with the passing seasonality of existence.
Memory
Feel how memory creates a continual but almost untouchable now.
Anger
Examine how anger might be the deepest form of care.
Beauty
Learn how beauty is a state of both deep attention and self-forgetting.
Confession
Discover how confession is an entrance to new territory and the first step home.
Despair
Notice how despair takes us in when we have nowhere else to go.
Forgiveness
Learn how forgiveness is a skill, and a way of preserving clarity and sanity.
Istanbul
Notice all the ways in which Istanbul breathes like a human being.
Longing
Discover how longing has its own secret future destination.
Maturity
See how maturity is the ability to live fully and equally in multiple contexts.
Rest
Feel how rest is the essence of giving and receiving.
Parallels
Reflect on the path not taken—and the life not lived.
Giving
Learn why giving is a true test of character, and the highest form of art.
Haunted
See how "what haunts us is always something that seeks its own disappearance."
Solace
Understand the direct and forceful questions solace asks of us.
Naming
Discover what it means to "love without naming at all."
Crisis
Notice how crisis invites us to live a more robust and generous life.
Touch
Learn how we are "something for the world to run up against and rub up against."
Gratitude
See how gratitude functions, and points us toward "the underlying gift of life."
Procrastination
Get a new view of procrastination—and discover that it's not what it seems.
Unconditional
Reflect on what it means to love unconditionally—and how it may not be possible.
Regret
See why we must fully experience regret before we focus on the future.
Shadow
Discover how shadow "makes a presence of absence."
Pilgrim
Notice how each of us is on a separate, yet shared, journey through life.
Disappointment
Understand why disappointment is an inescapable but necessary part of life.
Rome
Reflect on how we can "see Rome before we die"—without ever visiting the city.
Vulnerability
Learn why vulnerability is not a choice, nor a weakness.
Withdrawal
Discover how withdrawal can be a "beautifully freeing act of mercy."
Self-Knowledge
See how self-knowledge is, paradoxically, a "conversation with the unknown."
Besieged
Discover why being besieged is "as much a privilege as it is a burden."
Ground
Learn what it means to "come to ground"—and why it's a courageous act.
Loneliness
Reflect on how loneliness is "the foundation of belonging."
Robustness
See how robustness is "a measure of the live frontier in a conversation."
Run Away
Discover why the urge to run away is "an essence of being human."
Pain
Reflect on how pain immediately acquaints us with "existence itself."
Shyness
Understand how shyness can be a "hallway of presence."
Unrequited
Reflect on why "a love returned hardly ever resembles a love given."
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Consolations
In this series, poet and author David Whyte explores and unpacks the rich meaning and complexity of everyday words. Each piece is a provocative meditation on meaning, context, and paradox—and serves as an invitation to broaden our perspective. With each word, Whyte makes us wonder, while expertly guiding us along the path of embracing our shared humanity.
Listen to be astounded by ordinary words.
to listen to all 52 sessions in this series.
Artwork by Waking Up In House