Crossing The Unknown Sea - Work As A Pilgrimage Of Identity, David Whyte

The condition of this book tells a story, it has lived a life. A sign of its importance to me during the past decade, and no doubt beyond. In Crossing the Unknown Sea, David Whyte is drawing us towards a deeper and lasting shift in how we attend to our inner world of desires and dreams for a life well-lived, face the world and its demands, and truly engage in the conversational nature of reality.

Pretending To Be Alive

We may do the same work and do it well, but we may do it well in a way that does not engage our deeper powers in any real conversation, so that we lose any sense of personal edge. We may be admired in our work, but the admiration blinds and insulates us from the loss of something robust and lifelike inside us.

We are impersonating, but the impersonation is incredibly subtle because we are, in effect, impersonating ourselves. The surface life is a simulacrum of something we intuit inside ourselves but have not yet really brought to life from the depths. All the while we are slowly in retreat from or own frontier.

This book was pivotal for me ten years ago, at a time when I chose to walk away from a more traditional and well-worn path, because I knew deeply that it was not my own. I have written something more along those lines, also partly inspired by David Whyte, which you can read here.

Utilising his own personal narrative throughout, David charts the transformation and realignment that is an ever necessary aspect of participating in the conversational nature of reality, as he puts it. To be at the frontier of ones identity and powers means leaning beyond what we might perceive as our edge, often limited by deeply held beliefs about ourselves which are often rooted in fear.

The world will ask, and sometimes demand, things of us. Yet we always retain some capacity to shape that conversation through our response, through the particular way we participate in our own life.

At the same time, there is what we wish to happen, which rarely unfolds in the way we imagine. The nature of possibility is shaped by many influences, many of which are beyond our control.

To hold this tension deliberately, without collapsing into excessive striving or withdrawing altogether, is not to drift aimlessly but to dwell with intention. To be, quite literally, in tension means to to consciously recognise the conflict between what is calling for expression in your life, and what feels possible.

The Law and the Outlaw in David Whyte's Crossing the Unknown Sea

To preserve a sense of freedom even in the midst of rules and regulations is to preserve a part of our identities free from the strictures and responsibilities of success, career, and corporation. The measure of our continuing individuality in any work is the refusal to be swallowed by our goals, our ambitions, or our company no matter how marvelous they may be. In order to live happily within outer laws, we must have a part of us that goes its own way, that is blessedly outlaw no matter the outward conditions or rewards.

To find the roots of our responsibilities, we must go to the roots of our abilities, a journey into a core sense of ourselves where we can put together an understanding of how we are made, why we have the responsibilities we have, and, just as important, the images that formed us in our growing. We all have particular images of freedom, mischief, and radical individuality we carry deep inside ourselves which can help us to throw off the tyranny of a situation, our own indomitable stubbornness, a difficult boss, or a repressive organization.

Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity

Let’s return to the subtitle, Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity.

What stands out most to me now is the word pilgrimage.

It suggests proceeding with a sense of longing, and with a kind of faith in the vitality of what calls us forward. At the same time, there is the recognition that the journey itself may be the only destination that can ever truly be reached.

Meeting our desire for meaningful work asks something more of us than simply arriving and departing from a compartmentalised version of ourselves. It calls for a more direct contact, a sense of being grounded in what we do, of having some real investment in it.

There is something here about bringing oneself fully to the work, without fragmenting into separate identities. At the same time, this requires the capacity to protect what is most essential, particularly when one’s sense of identity, imagination, or direction feels under pressure.

Perhaps there is only movement, and perhaps only a constant stream of arrival.

David Whyte has suggested that what we commit ourselves to is ultimately a horizon rather than a fixed destination. In that sense, pilgrimage does not conclude. Each point of arrival opens onto something further, something that again asks for attention, commitment, and the willingness to move beyond what is already known.

Work, Identity, and the Horizon Ahead

Questions of work and identity are often inseparable from the question of how we go about finding our path in life. They often involve uncertainty, hesitation, and the sense of standing at an edge without a clear map of what lies beyond it.

In my work as a Mentor for artists and creative professionals, I often meet people at precisely this point. There may be a feeling that something is not quite aligned, or that an existing path no longer feels sustainable, even if it appears successful from the outside.

This is not always about dramatic change. Sometimes it is about a gradual reorientation, a closer attention to what feels most alive, and a willingness to remain in dialogue with that.

Working Together

Through online Creative Mentoring or Psychotherapy, we can explore your relationship to work and purpose, and the horizon you are moving towards, or feel drawn toward.

What are the fears that may be limiting you, perhaps quietly or without your full awareness? What would it mean to move, in David Whyte’s words, just beyond yourself?

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Andrew Phillips is a Psychotherapist (HCPC registered), Creative mentor, and Visual Artist

If you are interested in the themes presented in this article, you can find out about working together in online psychotherapy, or creative mentoring sessions.

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