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  • When the Heart Breaks

  • A Journey Through Requited and Unrequited Love
  • By: David Whyte
  • Narrated by: David Whyte
  • Length: 2 hrs and 23 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (54 ratings)
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When the Heart Breaks cover art

When the Heart Breaks

By: David Whyte
Narrated by: David Whyte
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Summary

If you never knew disappointment, would you ever grow? If you had never felt loss, could you have compassion for another? Without real heartache, would you ever know the greatness of love? On When the Heart Breaks, David Whyte invites you to join him in an investigation of a question that rests at the center of human experience. With a poet's insight into the landscape of the soul, he offers a deeply moving exploration of how we experience love and loss, and how with resilience and time we can rise again each time we are broken. "No human being has ever lived without knowing heartbreak," David Whyte tells us. "And to accept that truth is to give a merciful gift to ourselves." As David reveals, so often our hearts break because the love we offer - whether to a partner, a friend, a child, or a place - is not returned to us in the same way. Yet if we retreat from experience of unrequited love, he says, we miss the opportunity to discover the countless invisible ways that the world offers us its love in return, often unlooked for and unrecognized.

Understanding heartbreak, says David Whyte, helps us to develop a more beautiful mind - a mind that embraces the hidden riches of life. We learn to apprentice ourselves to the great and small difficulties that test the edges of our identity and lead us into greater and greater understanding. With words to inspire laughter, courage, and deep reflection, David Whyte invites you to join him in the great conversation that takes us into the exquisite vulnerability of the unknown - the way a heartbreak can make us more humble, more aware, and expand our ability to love.

©2012 David Whyte (P)2012 David Whyte

What listeners say about When the Heart Breaks

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Superb

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely, and not only those whose souls are freer than others.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It spoke straight to my soul and I felt as if I was singing from my deepest and most beautiful realm.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Captivatingly beautiful.

David Whyte has the most beautiful gift to give us all with his capturing and remembering of human experiences throughout his life.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

wrongly marketed

there’s not enough content of unrequited love to warrant such a title, totally misleading. Also I found D W’s unnatural laughter a big put off in a work that is supposed to come from the heart. I guessed I was ‘hunting out for further disappointment’ when I chose this book ;)

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

It feeds me.

I relisten to this many many times since I got it, a year and a half ago.
Its food for the soul. I absolutely love David's turn of phrase and always hear something new, as another penny drops. Resonation happens on many levels and layers.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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Very disappointed

Both disappointing and annoying. Lots of repetition and false strained laughter. lost count of the number of times he said “you know “. Completely inaccurate reference to a well known Irish story teller Peig Sayers. Just meandering stream of consciousness with in my view, little of substance or value.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

More excellence from this wonderful wonderful man

The title says it all, really. More wonderful insights and poems from this beloved and enlightened man. Food for the soul. Properly nourishing. Listen and be changed again and again.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful: uplifting and poignant

The words seem to flow, never stale despite the repetive style the author uses. So many clear insights, and useful analogies, delivered with humour and warmth. Encourages poetry and reflection, and a fantastic reminder of our love for stories.

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Soothing

Would you consider the audio edition of When the Heart Breaks to be better than the print version?

This is the first time that I have heard David Whyte's poetry and storytelling and I am rushing to buy more of his work. I found it uplifting, calming, reflective and humorous - a wonderful combination.

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