Young Man with Skull, by Paul Cézanne
What should I say about your tendency to doubt your struggle or to harmonize your inner and outer life? My wish is ever strong that you find enough patience within you and enough simplicity to have faith. May you gain more and more trust in what is challenging, and confidence in the solitude you bear. Let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right in any case.
Furnborg, Jonsered, Sweden, November 4, 1904
Letters to a Young Poet
Beautiful Rilke.
ReplyDeleteThis is the ultimate surrender, to believe that life is in the right in any case . . . that all is well.
ReplyDeletei posted about the cracks of life passing through the nest of my creation and rilke's words "let life happen to you" melds entirely correctly in with the thinking. lovely. steven
ReplyDeleteI am sustained by the Love of God. This is today's lesson for me and this is but another reminder in other words to reinforce this idea.
ReplyDeleteI like it. Life is certainly happening. I want to believe it's in the right, that "nature will out" etc. Not sure. We do choose our destinies to some extent tho' I'm sure people in Somalia and other oppressed tribes/countries/races would disagree with THAT statement. Easy for me to say.
ReplyDeleteThis is at the white-hot center of my struggle, every single day: just let go and let it happen. Nothing good happens with that, I'm learning ... xox
ReplyDeleteI strive for patience and simplicity every day; perhaps faith will follow. I do believe that life is in the right; if only we respect it.
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ReplyDeleteTo trust in what is challenging, to have confidence in one's solitude, to let life happen, all the while knowing that life is in the right in any case — how good it was to be reminded of this after a week in which the weight and momentum of worldly affairs threw me off my game. Thanks to Rilke — and thanks to Ruth and Lorenzo — for helping to clear a cluttered mind and bring it back to focus.
ReplyDeleteConsidering how often we hear our faith is ever being tested, the part of this quote I find most striking and thought-provoking is "... find ... enough simplicity to have faith...."
ReplyDelete"life is in the right"--I hope so...
ReplyDeletewonderful blessing
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