Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
That´s a very interesting thought, I like it! :-)
ReplyDeleteWise words from Rilke. I read this book years ago but think I'll read it again. (I think my daughter stole it.) How many times do we have a hard time living with the question? It takes faith in life to know that the answer always comes.
ReplyDeleteWords of truth from the wise and wonderful Herr Rilke.
ReplyDelete♥ Robin ♥
I love that quote...as I love Rilke! Letters to a Young Poet is such a treasure. Just the advice I need as I head down to the studio and try to remain open to what happens....being immersed in the questions. The photograph you've posted is also beautiful...thanks!
ReplyDeletePatti/MissouriBendStudio
Such a perfect quote for me right now Willow, you have no idea - thanks.
ReplyDeleteA lot of wisdom there, I have always been fonder of questions than answers.
ReplyDeleteI thought that by fortysomething I'd already be experiencing the answers (at least a few) for all those questions; no such luck! As I live questioning every day, this quote is timely. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteexcellent advice.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if the answers always come, perhaps I'll just forget the question and go on living. Great thoughts though.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of trying to love the questions and letting the answers come gradually. It's all in the timing, I guess. But I do find that as an answer comes to me, so does another question...a never-ending process.
ReplyDeletegreat thought for the day willow...i love questions...
ReplyDeleteThanks Willow for such an inspirational and wise quote. It speaks to me.
ReplyDeletefabulous insight :)
ReplyDeleteAh, yes... it's always the questions that are more important. ;)
ReplyDeleteWillow
ReplyDeleteThat is a wonderful quote! I love it and really needed it today. Like everyone else, today is really the first day of the rest of my life! I am very excited. I have given myself permission and your selection of the quote only further tells me it is just right. Perfect! Thank you so much!
That Rilke knew what he was talking about. I think our life is a spiral, and we keep encountering the same questions at different points, and sometimes, the answers are in us, ready and waiting.
ReplyDeleteI've always said that I have a series of ever changing questions for God which float around in my head. Some He's answered and some He hasn't.
ReplyDeleteI love your photos! And the quotation is so appropriate. Several of us have been thinking of young people/teens today. Here's mine.
ReplyDeleteRainer Maria Rilke....,it could not be said better,so clear and obvious,only a wise man could write this and like this.
ReplyDeleteBeautifull.Thanks.
I so am fed and comforted by your eye for beauty and compostion
ReplyDeletethank you
lovely words but easier said than done.
ReplyDeletere your last post, you would love Downton Abbey, now showing on ITV here in the UK on Sunday evenings.
some distant day,
ReplyDelete~sigh~
patience grasshopper.
I love this Willow!!!
Acornmoon, Downton Abbey? I'm making a note to watch for it on disc. Thanks for the suggestion!
ReplyDeleteJanelle, when my daughter was here on her last visit, she had a copy of Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet" and got me hooked. I had to get my own copy!
ReplyDeleteBeloved Rilke,
ReplyDeletethank you, Willow!
Beloved Rilke,
ReplyDeletethank you, Willow!
Beloved Rilke,
ReplyDeletethank you, Willow!
Always many more questions than answers....
ReplyDeleteAnd some things will forever remain a mystery!
ReplyDeleteI'm still big on questions. Not so flush with the answers, though.
ReplyDeletePerfect words for me to be reading today. Any day really, but today especially. Loving the questions...sigh.
ReplyDeleteMany,many thanks for sharing this!
Willow,
ReplyDeleteRilke's right if he also means to suggest even further 'not to be impatient living the question'.
This is so 'yoga' that I'm going to get up from this chair, regain the proper curve to my back, breathe fully.
And forget what never have needed to be a concern.
Trulyfool
Ah yes, living the question is a great way to live.
ReplyDeleteThought provoking quote.
ReplyDeleterilke floats my boat so often - thankyou for this thoughtful thought willow!!! steven
ReplyDeleteInteresting and wise thoughts. Good advice for anyone.
ReplyDeleteI carried this quote around with me the last, oh, fifteen or so years, often sharing it with friends when no other words would do.
ReplyDeleteThank you for it today, it speaks volumes in a very special way to me.
Answers, good ones, are just'
ReplyDeletethe preamble to more questions,
and this never-ending process
of seeking and finding, only
to discover deeper mysteries,
is called our life.
It is like the quest to find
truth, "the truth" about
life being in lessons, and
differentiating between
genetic memory, intuition,
instinct, and past lives recall.
Thanks for reminding me about Rilke's wise words, Willow.
ReplyDeleteLife is like the game of "Jeopardy" with Alex Trebek. You should always answer in the form of a question : )
ReplyDeleteHeh-heh, LadyCat, you're so right!
ReplyDeleteanswers belong is some distant day...
ReplyDeleteThis speaks to my life at the moment Willow. I am living the question and trying very hard not to seek the answer.
ReplyDeleteAw patience…. I now I will continue looking anyway, though the quote is probably right.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful photo to accompany that terrific quote!
ReplyDeletewillow -- thoughtful honest words from Rilke. -- barbara
ReplyDeleteI've pondered this at different stages of my life, it keeps returning so I reckon I'm not within the full understanding, yet.
ReplyDeleteLove the angle of this photo.-J
Very wise advice, arriving in a prudent manner for me.
ReplyDeleteAh, I knew that was Rilke; his sensibility is striking. As is your photo, not incidentally.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this.
I love when you post Rilke because I haven't read him like that since I WAS young -- can we still gain from Rilke when we're old?
ReplyDeletehi!This was a really brilliant blog!
ReplyDeleteI come from roma, I was fortunate to look for your website in google
Also I learn a lot in your subject really thank your very much i will come again
Love music.
ReplyDeleteTrue wisdom.....xv
ReplyDeleteWillow,
ReplyDeleteI love your window picture! It goes well with your chosen poem of wisdom which I took to heart for my morning meditation time.
Hope you are having a great day!
:) The Bach
(As They tell Us On The London Underground) "Mind The Gap!"
ReplyDelete(As They tell Us On The London Underground) "Mind The Gap!"
ReplyDeleteVery sound advice indeed. And so eloquently spoken.
ReplyDeleteI love that quote and your image with it.
ReplyDeleteAlways giving us a broader perspective on life. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI had this quote tacked up over my sink in the late 80s !!
ReplyDeleteMore words of wisdom from "Der Meister".....
ReplyDeleteThese particular words suit my current life to a "t".
Yes....it is sweltering here too...80 today! (But though I am a charter member of the "wooly socks' club, my "Summer" was so grey and cold, I am basking in the warmth.....
And....I received a "Willow Ball" gift yesterday....... I LOVE IT!!!!
Big hugs to my fellow "October Sister",
♥ Robin ♥
Absolutely true willow - although not always easy to bear in mind. I love that window and the glass on the sill.
ReplyDeleteRobin, glad the little hummer made it there safe and sound. I know he loves his new home!
ReplyDeletei like this quote and great photo too. quite a lot there to chew on. Inspiring too even.
ReplyDeletegreat thought willow... got me intrigued.. we all live in world full of questions with few ans.. the ride will be much better if we stop worrying abt the latter... :)
ReplyDeleteSpot on.
ReplyDeleteGood post.Bravo
Can I hijack this as a sort of ultimate PS for my existence post? It's an old favourite that somehow evaded the original 'little green book'.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that I agree entirely with Janelle that the answer always comes. Nor am I sure that Rilke is averring that it will. There is, it seems to me, a powerful implication in the statement that whilst answers might come about empirically and thus with time, further questions will rise up in their wake.
Dick, I noticed from your post, that we were on the same wave length this week. Yes, many questions will remain unanswered, and that's okay. Thanks for your input.
ReplyDeleteMaria Rilke is an old friend. His words live with me, stain me, fill me.
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly what I needed to read today. Thank you Willow, and thank you RMR, my favorite poet (next to William Shakespeare).
ReplyDeleteMore wisdom from Rilke. Beautiful!
ReplyDelete