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| From "Letters to a Young Poet," by Rainer Maria Rilke. Translated by Joan M. Burnham. New World Library: 2000. |
Yes, "completely baked" as spoken by Benjamin in THE GRADUATE would qualify as fervent. Definitely feverish.
Fervent is never half-baked, never tepid, never neither-this-nor-that. It is passionate, fiery hot, may appear obsessive. Heartfelt.
What is the point of showing up with indifference? Let them talk. "She seemed, well, awfully intense. I'm not sure that is considered good manners." Probably not. This is life we're talking about. As Mary Oliver says, "your one wild and precious life." Be a shame to get over-excited about that and all the wonders it contains. Perhaps I need to sit back down with a cool cloth to my forehead.
As I write this, we are having oddly balmy winds, none of the chance of showers forecast as late as this morning, and the neighborhood Amazon parrots are shrieking through the skies as though warning us of something. They do a lot of jabbering so we don't take them seriously. The point is that I sit at my table on the second floor, amid the trees where I can see no cars nor dwellings. An hour ago a crow with a wingspan of several feet found delicacies in the palm tree just beyond my window. His departure sounded like an old window shade that had been yanked down, then let go to flap and shudder.
Rilke knew that our ordinary moments are filled with texture, brilliance, joy, sorrow, sights and events to make our hearts leap or thud. Best to take nothing for granted, to see it all as miraculous for the everyday is our most intimate universe, the room in which we spend the most time, the place it all happens. Even peak events are cushioned by the everyday. It is that with which we most surely need to fall in love, if we have not. I had a stamp made that says, "Fall in love with everything," then I realized there are some situations in which that is difficult, many in fact, but as a goal, an aspiration, it seems a not bad fit. I use the word love more and more, realizing that I do love so much. I do, in loud and giddy and probably unladylike ways. The list is longer every day.
I occasionally visit the Jet Pens website, perhaps to look at bottled inks. Some of the colors, with names like Apache Sunset, Heart of Darkness or Dragon Catfish Pink, make me think of fervent correspondence. Is there really any other kind?
6 comments:
"Best to take nothing for granted, to see it all as miraculous for the everyday is our most intimate universe, the room in which we spend the most time, the place it all happens".
Love this! Love you!
xoxoxo
K
Karen - Rilke's timeless wisdom gives us such simple, clear direction. Thank you, my friend. Love you. xo
Yes, Rilke's words are touchstones, sacred wisdom, language of the heart that gives us hope. Love, love and more love, kindness, more and more; gratitude, each another form of love. From your serene and solitary and contemplative perch (shared with the wild parrots and occasional crow), you have a unique and clear-eyed perspective, Marylinn. You live apart from the chaos, the noise, the busyness, which is why you are our guide, our guru, our wise woman, why we love your writing, your tender and generous heart. Thank you for continuing to show us the way. xoxoxo
Melissa - Love, love, hooray for love, who was ever too blase (accent over the e) for love? Thank you. And, apropos of nothing, as dry as it was when I wrote this, showers, then rain, then thunderstorms and more thunderstorms came. One simply never knows. Perhaps each day IS Valentine's Day. xoxo
"Best to take nothing for granted, to see it all as miraculous for the everyday is our most intimate universe, the room in which we spend the most time, the place it all happens. "
i sure do like this sentence. and your musings in general...
Mary Ann - Thank you. My former and late husband had a phrase from his father, "The BIG Moment," which he used to describe true romance but which speaks to me of that for which we have all, at some point, hankered. I am no longer on a quest for any other sort of moment than what I have. xo
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