Finding your undercurrent

David Whyte, the poet and thinker, talks movingly about what it takes to detect the undercurrent of our lives, the slow, long-term direction of movement that is always there, whether we are aware of it or not. In the end, the conclusion he reaches is that we can only have a chance of finding our undercurrent when we take time out to stop splashing around in the direction we're pursuing and stop. Completely. Then calm our restless selves down. Wait. Listen. Smell the breeze.

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Shamash is smiling

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, which goes back to ancient times where legend and history cannot usefully be separated, there an evocative moment where the hero, Gilgamesh, rails in frustration before his god Shamash about his unfulfilled need to conquer the land of Humbaba. Here's what he says: "If this enterprise is not to be accomplished, why did you move me, Shamash, with the restless desire to perform it?"

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