I know it can be annoying to find a post with long passages transcribed from someone else’s interest in a book. But. If you’re slightly interested in revolutionary ways of seeing and managing sorrows, if you have some feel for destiny or if you just like to revel in the wisdom and grace of someone poetic, this is worth the effort:
“I believe that almost all our sadnesses are moments of tension that we find paralyzing because we no longer hear our surprised feelings living. Because we are alone with the alien thing that has entered into our self; because everything intimate and accustomed is for an instant taken away; because we stand in the middle of a transition where we cannot remaing standing. For this reason the sadness too passes: the new thing in us, the added thing, has entered into our heart, has gone into its inmost chamber and is not even there any more,–is already in our blood. And we do not learn what it was. We could easily be made to believe that nothing has happened, and yet we have changed, as a house changes into which a guest has entered. We cannot say who has come, perhaps we shall never know, but many signs indicate that the future enters into us in this way in order to transform itself in us long before it happens. And this is why it is so important to be lonely and attentive when one is sad: because the apparently uneventful and stark moment at which our future sets foot in us is so much closer to life than that other noisy and fortuitous point of time at which it happens to us as if from outside. The more still, more patient and more open we are the more unswervingly does the new go into us, so more will it be our destiny, and when on some later day it ‘happens’ (that is steps forth out of us to others), we shall feel in our inmost selves akin and near to it. And that is necessary. It is necessary–and toward this our development will move gradually–that no thing strange should befall us, but only that which has long belonged to us.”
Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters To A Young Poet
J. Ruth Kelly 
I found Rilke about 10 years ago when I was going through turmoil on my religious path. As one who likes to attempt poetry, I couldn’t resist his expressiveness in his book, Love Poems to God. Another golden work. His words gave me the courage to face my doubts about my path and still hold to God. And to cherish authenticity.
I just heard of Rilke for the first time last week on NPR’s Speaking of Faith. Really like Rilke, the more I hear. Thanks for sharing this.
Try his book Love Poems to God…wonderful poetry.
Another book for my reading list. Still and patient, good reminders.
This one and Love Poems to God…two well-worn books in my world. Rilke has held my hand and given me hope through many a dark night.