Lightly Child, Lightly.

~ Live & Learn

Everything wants to float.
And yet we move about like weights,
attaching ourselves to everything, in thrall to gravity…

— Rainer Maria Rilke, from “14,” Sonnets to Orpheus.

Notes:

  • Photograph: Lori Vrba with ‘The Caretaker’s Balloon’ (via Newthom)
  • Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
  • Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”

29 thoughts on “Lightly Child, Lightly.”

  5. The weights, though heavy, feel safe and secure. And perhaps the uncertainty and the infinite vastness of floating, keep us trapped in our comfort zone. Either way, I’m going up….🎈🎈🎈🎈the view is so much better from up here Ha ✈️✈️

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. I’m a great lover of Rilke but haven’t come across this wonderful quote… the pic just makes this wish so well visible and I wd like to include that WE too would often wish to float a bit more and not be so downtrodden by the weight of our earthly load (misery/pain/probs/etc) IF only the gravity wasn’t so overwhelmingly strong 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. I take what I said back. I’m weighed down under now. Jinxed myself. Flu and all day meeting talking about numbers. I HATE numbers. We’re up but I hate taking about it 😦

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  9. “Still, what I want in my life
    is to be willing
    to be dazzled—
    to cast aside the weight of facts

    and maybe even
    to float a little
    above this difficult world.
    I want to believe I am looking

    into the white fire of a great mystery.
    I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing—
    that the light is everything—that it is more than the sum
    of each flawed blossom rising and falling. And I do.”
    ― Mary Oliver, House of Light

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

Leave a Reply