December 27, 2006

A Walk

Often on Christmas morning, my family takes a walk. Although this December we have had very rainy and dark winter days here in Oregon, I have memories of unseasonable warm and sunny Christmas mornings in which we have gone out walking. Regardless of the weather, we walk with uplifted spirits and joyfulness in our hearts. Within us, something circulates about which we do not usually give words to. Rilke finds these words in this poem, reminding me of the ephemeral quality I sense moving through each of us.

A Walk

My eyes already touch the sunny hill,
going far ahead of the road I have begun.
So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;
it has its inner light, even from a distance----

and changes us, even if we do not reach it,
into something else, which, hardly sensing it, we already are;
a gesture waves us on, answering our own wave...
but what we feel is the wind in our faces.

-Ranier Maria Rilke

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have often felt the same, and you and Rilke convery it beautifully :)

Peace and Blessings!

Meredith said...

Thank you Irving. I wonder if we do not all feel this feeling, but have difficulty putting words to it. Imgaine if we could call it out and name it, and truly grasp this Light? I sense we could all be uplifted by knowing this quality of our lives more intimately.