Sometimes
​if you move carefully
​through the forest

​breathing
​like the ones
​in the old stories

​who could cross
​a shimmering bed of dry 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
​beginning to lead everywhere.

​​Requests to stop what
​you are doing right now,
​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.

​~ by David Whyte