Some months ago while browsing in the sale section at Anthropolgie I came across a book of poems, and flipping idly through it landed on this gem by Rilke. It seemed to me quite timely as it was just around New Years and I'd been contemplating the change my life had seen in the past year, and wondering what changes I would see in the one ahead. It's remained in my head ever since, as a beautiful reminder to not become a victim of nostalgia, to not shy away from change but to embrace it. To embrace the bittersweet moment of transition, knowing that it may bring joy and possibility never before dreamed of, and celebrate the ephemeral nature of life which we so often curse, but which is the very thing that makes it so precious.
Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two, XII
Want the change. Be inspired by the flame
where everything shines as it disappears.
The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much
as the curve of the body as it turns away.
What locks itself in sameness has congealed.
Is it safer to be gray and numb?
What turns hard becomes rigid
and is easily shattered.
Pour yourself out like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking
finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.
Every happiness is the child of a separation
it did not think it could survive. And Daphne, becoming
a laurel,
dares you to become the wind.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~
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