Nourished by Words

After hearing David Whyte's radio interview, I've been wanting to check out one of his books. My library had only this one of them, so I picked it off the shelf and brought it home before I even looked inside. I was surprised to find in it a series of short essays, each talking about a particular word. The words are alphabetical, starting with “Alone" and ending with “Work.” I read a couple essays before I discovered the subtitle: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlining Meaning of Everyday Words.” I was hoping for some poems, but the essays look like they will be worthwhile.

Here is a sample passage from my skimming. It's about the word “Friendship.”

...the ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor or the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.

I haven't decided yet how meaningful this book will be for me, but even this short passage has nourishing images