This poem came my way today as part of a Spirituality and Practice series.
Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two XII, by Rainer Maria Rilke
Want the change. Be inspired by the flame
Where everything shines as it disappears.
The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much
as the curve of the body as it turns away.
What locks itself in sameness has congealed.
Is it safer to be gray and numb?
What turns hard becomes rigid
and is easily shattered.
Pour yourself like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking
finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.
Every happiness is the child of a separation
it did not think it could survive. And Daphne,
becoming a laurel,
dares you to become the wind.
Want the change...
It's hard for me to want the changes I see happening to friends and family members as they age. I can't avoid the fact that some of them are beginning to happen to me too.
Is it safer to be gray and numb?
I certainly don't want to be like that! So I guess this requires adapting to change with openness and flexibility. I'm certainly very open and flexible about the things I read, explore and think about. Interesting! I realise I am happy with internal (mind/spirit) change - I really do want that. To me that's growth. The changes I resist are the physical/energy changes. They feel like diminishment.
What turns hard becomes rigid and is easily shattered
Yes I get that. I don't think I'm hard or rigid. I hope not.
Pour yourself out like a fountain
This line reminds me of a line from another poem (called 'Unfinished Poem'!) by John O'Donahue: "I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding". Both of these images suggest letting life flow freely wherever and however it goes. To me that speaks of allowing change without resisting it, rather than wanting it.
What you are seeking....with ending begins
Yes - every ending is the threshold to a new beginning. The 'end' of this life will be the beginning of true 'fulness of life' - which is what all our ultimate 'seeking' is about.
Dare to become the wind
In Greek mythology Daphne was a nymph who transformed herself into a laurel tree. So to be as free and flexible as a tree in the wind a previous identity might need to be left behind.
Plenty more mulling to do! Maybe different lines are the ones for you to chew over.
Shaped by the wind (Cornwall Park)
