In Consolations, David Whyte unpacks aspects of being human that many of us spend our lives trying vainly to avoid ¿ loss, heartbreak, vulnerability, fear ¿ boldly reinterpreting them, fully embracing their complexity, never shying away from paradox in his relentless search for meaning.Beginning with ''alone'' and closing with ''withdrawal'', each piece in this life-affirming book is a meditation on meaning and context, an invitation to shift and broaden our perspectives on life: pain and joy, honesty and anger, confession and vulnerability, the experience of feeling overwhelmed and the desire to run away from it all. Through this lens, procrastination may be a necessary ripening; hiding, an act of freedom; and shyness something that accompanies the first stage of revelation.