Peering Ahead on Tiptoes

“And now let us welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.”

Rilke’s simple welcome of the new year paints, for me, the image of a child standing on tiptoes at a window, peering out expectantly, looking for possibilities, good surprises, and delightful discoveries. May all this and more be yours in this new year. And may we all continue to nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm deep within us.

Happy New Year!

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week:

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What Remains to be Feared?

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“In the course of my work this last long winter, I have experienced a truth more completely than ever before: that life’s bestowal of riches already surpasses any subsequent impoverishment. What, then, remains to be feared? Only that we might forget this! But around and within us, how much it helps to remember!”

– Rainer Maria Rilke, A Year With Rilke –

Remember life’s riches. Nurture peace. Cultivate kindness. Carry the calm.

Nature of the week:

Shadow of the Week:

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The Inner – What Is It?

Posted by karynhenleyauthor

“Ah, not to be cut off,
not through the slightest partition
shut out from the law of the stars.
The inner — what is it?
if not intensified sky,
hurled through with birds and deep
with the winds of homecoming.”

– Rainer Maria Rilke –

However we might envision the inner self, I suspect that if we explore deeply enough, we’ll feel “the winds of homecoming.”

Nurture peace, cultivate kindness, and carry the calm.

Nature of the week and shadow of the week:

I read Rilke’s poem for the first time in an On Being blog posted by Parker Palmer. On Being posts thoughtful, gracious conversations sensitive to the things of the spirit. Give them a read – or a listen – if you haven’t yet.

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For my posts on the wonder of life, link here.