Get In and Get Out. Start Close In.

Get in and get out. 

I’ve heard this a lot. I’ve said this a lot. Either stay out of range, or land something and get away. You don’t stay in the hot zone, because that gets you hit. Scored on. Yelled at.

Get in and get out.

I can get stuck in the hot zone, physically but mentally too. Sometimes you need a macro view of things, and sometimes you need to back out to remember what the giant view looks like, but sometimes I get stuck in the middle. Unfocused. Waffling. Wasting time.

So I’m trying to start close in.

Start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t want to take.Â

* * *

Start Close In

-David Whyte (via 37 Days)

Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step you don’t want to take.

Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way of starting
the conversation.

Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them
smother something
simple.

To find
another’s voice
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes a
private ear
listening
to another.

Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don’t follow
someone else’s
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don’t mistake
that other
for your own.

Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step you don’t want to take.