Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.![]()
| Rainer Maria Rilke |
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Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote these words in his poem “Go to the Limits of Your Longing,” in which he expresses a hopeful view of the human experience. Trying to avoid pain in pursuit of only happiness is a fruitless endeavor, he suggests, and in fact our most profound joys are only made sweeter in contrast to the bitterness we all experience. Rilke encourages us to dive headfirst into life, and to never stop fully living, no matter what comes our way. This was handed to me at one of the lowest points in my life.
Go to the Limits of Your Longing
God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
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Just keep going. No feeling is final.
No greater line have I ever heard from anyone dear Edward.
Keep climbing those stairs no matter how much the thighs burn
we are alive until we breathe no more, Happy New Year my dear
poet friend, stay brave, and keep sharing these amazing poems
they enrich my life :)
Rebecca
Somehow with age I feel higher.
The view is more grand.