bell or blackbird

Just a poem this time. Because I happened to listen to an interview with the poet David Whyte. Whyte told Sam Harris, the interviewer, the story of a bell, a blackbird, a monk: 

The monk was out in the fields when the bell of the monastery reverberated through the still air. Here was the call for reflection, meditation. The monk said to himself: "This is the most beautiful sound in the world." Just then the song of a blackbird traveled to him across the pasture. And here was a call for possibility in reality, a delight in the here and now. The monk said to himself: "This is the most beautiful sound in the world." 

We don't know which call the monk chose to follow in the end, which direction he decided to turn. No one tells us. It's up to us.

It doesn't matter on which path I choose to stay awake. Committed to choosing wakefulness, I finally learn to trust I am walking home. (Sigh.) 

So the poem touched me deeply. I have been sitting with it for a while, and decided to share. We really are built for reality. We are built for reflection too. This delicious response-ability. Here is David Whyte:

The sound of a bell
Still reverberating,
or a blackbird calling
from a corner of the field,
asking you to wake
into this life,
or inviting you deeper
into the one that waits.

Either way
takes courage,
either way wants you
to be nothing
but that self that
is no self at all,
wants you to walk
to the place
where you find
you already know
how to give
every last thing
away.

The approach
that is also
the meeting
itself,
without any meeting at all.

That radiance
you have always carried with you
as you walk
both alone
and completely
accompanied
in friendship
by every corner
of the world
crying
Allelujah.

David Whyte, from The Bell and the Blackbird, ©2006 Many Rivers Press.

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And for the background, credits: 
David Whyte showcases other poems on his website. Here is the poem quoted. 
The interview with Sam Harris: The conversational nature of reality. 

What are your thoughts after reading or listening? Does it resonate? Not? As always, love to hear!