The trees you planted in childhood have grown too heavy. You cannot bring them along. Give yourselves to the air, to what you cannot hold.
— Rainer Maria Rilke, from “Sonnets to Orpheus, Part One, IV” in “In Praise of Mortality: Selections from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies
Notes:
- Thank you Beth for poem at Alive on All Channels
- DK Photo, Monday, October 16, 2023 @ 6:21am @ Cove Island Park. More pictures from that morning’s walk 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.
float
Yes. I can feel that!
One can’t lift a tree, but regardless of its weight, one can cede to the air, while still holding a leaf…
Once again the wonderful Mimi sends me to the dictionary… to look up the word “cede”! 😊 I like it! I interpreted it as “letting go of the negative… Of the things I cannot control”.
Thanks Mimi 💕
(“Interpreted” = “interpret”)
(One day, I am going to strangle Siri… If I can ever find her!)
Thank you Paul!! What a generous and kind thing to write!
Uuuf! This one hit me hard. Getting older, moving along, trying to follow this advice. I just hadn’t seen it in writing.
So me too. Oof.
Aaah, Rilke again…. Praise of Mortality indeed: makes us feel our own mortality-he’s not always very kind, Mr R.
Sadly, he’s not wrong!
Doesn’t change anything about my love for Rilke and/or for trees.
Smiling. Truth Kiki. You speak truth again.
Wise…and interesting way to hang it out to cleanse in the sunny air…and given up to the breeze….mingle, traveling with the weather, floating, through rain, summer lightening storms, sanitizing in the desert heat…over the waterways and oceans…incorporating molecules finally resting upon the leaves of a nutmeg tree in Indonesia or the snows of Mount Kilimanjaro…maybe even hitching a ride on the dust of a jet airliner’s wings into the lower level of the atmosphere…./// Now I’m thinking of a friend who is a musician and song writer – in one of his song he sings of the atmosphere around the heart…and my thoughts are: at times that heart atmosphere with each beat..is ever changing, feeling, giving, growing…freeing encumbered pain leads to freedom of breath, exhaled out what is past and inhale in the gift of a fresh moment…
So great to have musician friend.
At first I took issue with this post, as I think I took the first sentence too literally.
Even though my physical childhood is long gone, I will always strive to be childlike wherever possible as I live out my remaining days… To the very end.
I believe trying to have a “childlike mind and spirit” whenever possible is important for my mental health.
Perhaps soon, I will be jumping into a pile of fall leaves (and then possibly going to the hospital lol).
Blessings to all and have a great weekend!
Laughing. Reminds me of:
https://youtu.be/Tu3HN-MmJc4?si=5UmYsaOtTYbUjt6y
👍👍👍 THAT is one of the most wonderful and JOY filled videos I have ever seen! THANKS Dave. Talk about being “childlike”!! In a word: “PRICELESS!
Still laughing.
I really need to read Rilke.
Me too!
Beautiful pairing – the image and the Rilke quote.
Thank you Bela.
Dave